Information gathering system and method

ABSTRACT

A system, apparatus and method for filling forms, including using a graphical capture device, are described herein.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/004,637 filed on Dec. 3, 2004, which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety.

This application is related to, and incorporates by reference in theirentirety, the following U.S. Patent Applications, filed concurrentlyherewith: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/097,961, entitled METHODSAND SYSTEMS FOR INITIATING APPLICATION PROCESSES BY DATA CAPTURE FROMRENDERED DOCUMENTS, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/097,093,entitled DETERMINING ACTIONS INVOLVING CAPTURED INFORMATION ANDELECTRONIC CONTENT ASSOCIATED WITH RENDERED DOCUMENTS, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/098,038, entitled CONTENT ACCESS WITH HANDHELDDOCUMENT DATA CAPTURE DEVICES, U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/098,014, entitled SEARCH ENGINES AND SYSTEMS WITH HANDHELD DOCUMENTDATA CAPTURE DEVICES, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/097,103,entitled TRIGGERING ACTIONS IN RESPONSE TO OPTICALLY OR ACOUSTICALLYCAPTURING KEYWORDS FROM A RENDERED DOCUMENT, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/098,043, entitled SEARCHING AND ACCESSING DOCUMENTS ONPRIVATE NETWORKS FOR USE WITH CAPTURES FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/097,089, entitled DOCUMENT ENHANCEMENTSYSTEM AND METHOD, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/097,835, entitledPUBLISHING TECHNIQUES FOR ADDING VALUE TO A RENDERED DOCUMENT, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/098,016, entitled ARCHIVE OF TEXTCAPTURES FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS, U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/097,828, entitled ADDING INFORMATION OR FUNCTIONALITY TO A RENDEREDDOCUMENT VIA ASSOCIATION WITH AN ELECTRONIC COUNTERPART, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/097,833, entitled AGGREGATE ANALYSIS OF TEXTCAPTURES PERFORMED BY MULTIPLE USERS FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/097,836, entitled ESTABLISHING ANINTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR RENDERED DOCUMENTS, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/098,042, entitled DATA CAPTURE FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS USINGHANDHELD DEVICE, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/096,704,entitled CAPTURING TEXT FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS USING SUPPLEMENTALINFORMATION.

This application claims priority to, and incorporates by reference intheir entirety, the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications:Application No. 60/559,226 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No.60/558,893 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,968 filed onApr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,867 filed on Apr. 1, 2004,Application No. 60/559,278 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No.60/559,279 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/559,265 filed onApr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/559,277 filed on Apr. 1, 2004,Application No. 60/558,969 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No.60/558,892 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,760 filed onApr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,717 filed on Apr. 1, 2004,Application No. 60/558,499 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No.60/558,370 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,789 filed onApr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,791 filed on Apr. 1, 2004,Application No. 60/558,527 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No.60/559,125 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TECHNICAL FIELD

The described technology is directed to the field of documentprocessing. The present invention relates to the field of electronicdata/information processing. More specifically, the present inventionrelates to methods and apparatuses for initiating ordering items using agraphical capture device.

BACKGROUND

Paper documents have an enduring appeal, as can be seen by theproliferation of paper documents in the computer age. It has never beeneasier to print and publish paper documents than it is today. Paperdocuments prevail even though electronic documents are easier toduplicate, transmit, search and edit.

Given the popularity of paper documents and the advantages of electronicdocuments, it would be useful to combine the benefits of both.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram that illustrates the flow of informationin one embodiment of the core system.

FIG. 2 is a component diagram of components included in a typicalimplementation of the system in the context of a typical operatingenvironment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a scanner.

FIG. 4 illustrates a system view of an example operating environment, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates an architectural view of a device suitable for use asa scanning device, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an architectural view of a device suitable for use asa form registry, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for thevarious devices to interact with the scanning device for filling a form,in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a processfor filling a form, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for variousdevices to interact with the scanning device for filling a form, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for variousdevices to interact with the scanning device for filling a form, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 11 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of aprocess for filling a form, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 12 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of aprocess for identifying a form, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 13 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of aprocess for processing field data for a form, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 14 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of aprocess for registering a form, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary form, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary filled form, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIGS. 17A-B illustrate exemplary postcard forms, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary catalog page as a form, in accordancewith one embodiment.

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary iconic form, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary iconic form web page, in accordancewith one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

In this description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings thatform a part hereof wherein like numerals designate like partsthroughout, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specificembodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural orlogical changes may be made without departing from the scope of thepresent invention. Therefore, the following detailed description is notto be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present inventionis defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Various embodiments include a user-friendly technique for filling forms(such as forms on paper, in catalogs, displayed on web pages, otherdynamic displays, in advertisements, in books, in magazines, on signsand the like) using a graphical capture device (such as a scanner,digital camera, or other device capable of capturing at least a portionof the rendered form) or other devices. Embodiments may be practiced toengage in many forms of information gathering utilizing a device tointerface with human and machine-readable materials.

In this description, various aspects of selected embodiments aredescribed. However, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill inthe art and others that alternate embodiments may be practiced with onlysome or all of the aspects. For purposes of explanation, specificnumbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and others that alternateembodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In otherinstances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not toobscure the illustrated embodiments.

Various operations may be described herein as multiple discreet steps inturn, in a manner that is helpful to understanding of the embodiments.However, the order of description should not be construed to imply thatthese operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, theseoperations may not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrase “in one embodiment” is used repeatedly. The phrase generallydoes not refer to the same embodiment, however, it may. The terms“comprising,” “having” and “including” are synonymous, unless thecontext dictates otherwise.

Part I—Introduction

1. Nature of the System

For every paper document that has an electronic counterpart, thereexists a discrete amount of information in the paper document that canidentify the electronic counterpart. In some embodiments, the systemuses a sample of text captured from a paper document, for example usinga handheld scanner, to identify and locate an electronic counterpart ofthe document. In most cases, the amount of text needed by the facilityis very small in that a few words of text from a document can oftenfunction as an identifier for the paper document and as a link to itselectronic counterpart. In addition, the system may use those few wordsto identify not only the document, but also a location within thedocument.

Thus, paper documents and their digital counterparts can be associatedin many useful ways using the system discussed herein.

1.1. A Quick Overview of the Future

Once the system has associated a piece of text in a paper document witha particular digital entity has been established, the system is able tobuild a huge amount of functionality on that association.

It is increasingly the case that most paper documents have an electroniccounterpart that is accessible on the World Wide Web or from some otheronline database or document corpus, or can be made accessible, such asin response to the payment of a fee or subscription. At the simplestlevel, then, when a user scans a few words in a paper document, thesystem can retrieve that electronic document or some part of it, ordisplay it, email it to somebody, purchase it, print it or post it to aweb page. As additional examples, scanning a few words of a book that aperson is reading over breakfast could cause the audio-book version inthe person's car to begin reading from that point when s/he startsdriving to work, or scanning the serial number on a printer cartridgecould begin the process of ordering a replacement.

The system implements these and many other examples of “paper/digitalintegration” without requiring changes to the current processes ofwriting, printing and publishing documents, giving such conventionalrendered documents a whole new layer of digital functionality.

1.2. Terminology

A typical use of the system begins with using an optical scanner to scantext from a paper document, but it is important to note that othermethods of capture from other types of document are equally applicable.The system is therefore sometimes described as scanning or capturingtext from a rendered document, where those terms are defined as follows:

A rendered document is a printed document or a document shown on adisplay or monitor. It is a document that is perceptible to a human,whether in permanent form or on a transitory display.

Scanning or capturing is the process of systematic examination to obtaininformation from a rendered document. The process may involve opticalcapture using a scanner or camera (for example a camera in a cellphone),or it may involve reading aloud from the document into an audio capturedevice or typing it on a keypad or keyboard. For more examples, seeSection 15.

2. Introduction to the System

This section describes some of the devices, processes and systems thatconstitute a system for paper/digital integration. In variousembodiments, the system builds a wide variety of services andapplications on this underlying core that provides the basicfunctionality.

2.1. The Processes

FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram that illustrates the flow of informationin one embodiment of the core system. Other embodiments may not use allof the stages or elements illustrated here, while some will use manymore.

Text from a rendered document is captured 100, typically in optical formby an optical scanner or audio form by a voice recorder, and this imageor sound data is then processed 102, for example to remove artifacts ofthe capture process or to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Arecognition process 104 such as OCR, speech recognition, orautocorrelation then converts the data into a signature, comprised insome embodiments of text, text offsets, or other symbols. Alternatively,the system performs an alternate form of extracting document signaturefrom the rendered document. The signature represents a set of possibletext transcriptions in some embodiments. This process may be influencedby feedback from other stages, for example, if the search process andcontext analysis 110 have identified some candidate documents from whichthe capture may originate, thus narrowing the possible interpretationsof the original capture.

A post-processing 106 stage may take the output of the recognitionprocess and filter it or perform such other operations upon it as may beuseful. Depending upon the embodiment implemented, it may be possible atthis stage to deduce some direct actions 107 to be taken immediatelywithout reference to the later stages, such as where a phrase or symbolhas been captured which contains sufficient information in itself toconvey the user's intent. In these cases no digital counterpart documentneed be referenced, or even known to the system.

Typically, however, the next stage will be to construct a query 108 or aset of queries for use in searching. Some aspects of the queryconstruction may depend on the search process used and so cannot beperformed until the next stage, but there will typically be someoperations, such as the removal of obviously misrecognized or irrelevantcharacters, which can be performed in advance.

The query or queries are then passed to the search and context analysisstage 110. Here, the system optionally attempts to identify the documentfrom which the original data was captured. To do so, the systemtypically uses search indices and search engines 112, knowledge aboutthe user 114 and knowledge about the user's context or the context inwhich the capture occurred 116. Search engine 112 may employ and/orindex information specifically about rendered documents, about theirdigital counterpart documents, and about documents that have a web(internet) presence). It may write to, as well as read from, many ofthese sources and, as has been mentioned, it may feed information intoother stages of the process, for example by giving the recognitionsystem 104 information about the language, font, rendering and likelynext words based on its knowledge of the candidate documents.

In some circumstances the next stage will be to retrieve 120 a copy ofthe document or documents that have been identified. The sources of thedocuments 124 may be directly accessible, for example from a localfiling system or database or a web server, or they may need to becontacted via some access service 122 which might enforceauthentication, security or payment or may provide other services suchas conversion of the document into a desired format.

Applications of the system may take advantage of the association ofextra functionality or data with part or all of a document. For example,advertising applications discussed in Section 10.4 may use anassociation of particular advertising messages or subjects with portionsof a document. This extra associated functionality or data can bethought of as one or more overlays on the document, and is referred toherein as “markup.” The next stage of the process 130, then, is toidentify any markup relevant to the captured data. Such markup may beprovided by the user, the originator, or publisher of the document, orsome other party, and may be directly accessible from some source 132 ormay be generated by some service 134. In various embodiments, markup canbe associated with, and apply to, a rendered document and/or the digitalcounterpart to a rendered document, or to groups of either or both ofthese documents.

Lastly, as a result of the earlier stages, some actions may be taken140. These may be default actions such as simply recording theinformation found, they may be dependent on the data or document, orthey may be derived from the markup analysis. Sometimes the action willsimply be to pass the data to another system. In some cases the variouspossible actions appropriate to a capture at a specific point in arendered document will be presented to the user as a menu on anassociated display, for example on a local display 332, on a computerdisplay 212 or a mobile phone or PDA display 216. If the user doesn'trespond to the menu, the default actions can be taken.

2.2. The Components

FIG. 2 is a component diagram of components included in a typicalimplementation of the system in the context of a typical operatingenvironment. As illustrated, the operating environment includes one ormore optical scanning capture devices 202 or voice capture devices 204.In some embodiments, the same device performs both functions. Eachcapture device is able to communicate with other parts of the systemsuch as a computer 212 and a mobile station 216 (e.g., a mobile phone orPDA) using either a direct wired or wireless connection, or through thenetwork 220, with which it can communicate using a wired or wirelessconnection, the latter typically involving a wireless base station 214.In some embodiments, the capture device is integrated in the mobilestation, and optionally shares some of the audio and/or opticalcomponents used in the device for voice communications andpicture-taking.

Computer 212 may include a memory containing computer executableinstructions for processing an order from scanning devices 202 and 204.As an example, an order can include an identifier (such as a serialnumber of the scanning device 202/204 or an identifier that partially oruniquely identifies the user of the scanner), scanning contextinformation (e.g., time of scan, location of scan, etc.) and/or scannedinformation (such as a text string) that is used to uniquely identifythe document being scanned. In alternative embodiments, the operatingenvironment may include more or less components.

Also available on the network 220 are search engines 232, documentsources 234, user account services 236, markup services 238 and othernetwork services 239. The network 220 may be a corporate intranet, thepublic Internet, a mobile phone network or some other network, or anyinterconnection of the above.

Regardless of the manner by which the devices are coupled to each other,they may all may be operable in accordance with well-known commercialtransaction and communication protocols (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP)).In various embodiments, the functions and capabilities of scanningdevice 202, computer 212, and mobile station 216 may be wholly orpartially integrated into one device. Thus, the terms scanning device,computer, and mobile station can refer to the same device depending uponwhether the device incorporates functions or capabilities of thescanning device 202, computer 212 and mobile station 216. In addition,some or all of the functions of the search engines 232, document sources234, user account services 236, markup services 238 and other networkservices 239 may be implemented on any of the devices and/or otherdevices not shown.

2.3. The Capture Device

As described above, the capture device may capture text using an opticalscanner that captures image data from the rendered document, or using anaudio recording device that captures a user's spoken reading of thetext, or other methods. Some embodiments of the capture device may alsocapture images, graphical symbols and icons, etc., including machinereadable codes such as barcodes. The device may be exceedingly simple,consisting of little more than the transducer, some storage, and a datainterface, relying on other functionality residing elsewhere in thesystem, or it may be a more full-featured device. For illustration, thissection describes a device based around an optical scanner and with areasonable number of features.

Scanners are well known devices that capture and digitize images. Anoffshoot of the photocopier industry, the first scanners were relativelylarge devices that captured an entire document page at once. Recently,portable optical scanners have been introduced in convenient formfactors, such as a pen-shaped handheld device.

In some embodiments, the portable scanner is used to scan text,graphics, or symbols from rendered documents. The portable scanner has ascanning element that captures text, symbols, graphics, etc, fromrendered documents. In addition to documents that have been printed onpaper, in some embodiments, rendered documents include documents thathave been displayed on a screen such as a CRT monitor or LCD display.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a scanner 302. The scanner302 comprises an optical scanning head 308 to scan information fromrendered documents and convert it to machine-compatible data, and anoptical path 306, typically a lens, an aperture or an image conduit toconvey the image from the rendered document to the scanning head. Thescanning head 308 may incorporate a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), aComplementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) imaging device, or anoptical sensor of another type.

A microphone 310 and associated circuitry convert the sound of theenvironment (including spoken words) into machine-compatible signals,and other input facilities exist in the form of buttons, scroll-wheelsor other tactile sensors such as touch-pads 314.

Feedback to the user is possible through a visual display or indicatorlights 332, through a loudspeaker or other audio transducer 334 andthrough a vibrate module 336.

The scanner 302 comprises logic 326 to interact with the various othercomponents, possibly processing the received signals into differentformats and/or interpretations. Logic 326 may be operable to read andwrite data and program instructions stored in associated storage 330such as RAM, ROM, flash, or other suitable memory. It may read a timesignal from the clock unit 328. The scanner 302 also includes aninterface 316 to communicate scanned information and other signals to anetwork and/or an associated computing device. In some embodiments, thescanner 302 may have an on-board power supply 332. In other embodiments,the scanner 302 may be powered from a tethered connection to anotherdevice, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection.

As an example of one use of scanner 302, a reader may scan some textfrom a newspaper article with scanner 302. The text is scanned as abit-mapped image via the scanning head 308. Logic 326 causes thebit-mapped image to be stored in memory 330 with an associatedtime-stamp read from the clock unit 328. Logic 326 may also performoptical character recognition (OCR) or other post-scan processing on thebit-mapped image to convert it to text. Logic 326 may optionally extracta signature from the image, for example by performing a convolution-likeprocess to locate repeating occurrences of characters, symbols orobjects, and determine the distance or number of other characters,symbols, or objects between these repeated elements. The reader may thenupload the bit-mapped image (or text or other signature, if post-scanprocessing has been performed by logic 326) to an associated computervia interface 316.

As an example of another use of scanner 302, a reader may capture sometext from an article as an audio file by using microphone 310 as anacoustic capture port. Logic 326 causes audio file to be stored inmemory 328. Logic 326 may also perform voice recognition or otherpost-scan processing on the audio file to convert it to text. As above,the reader may then upload the audio file (or text produced by post-scanprocessing performed by logic 326) to an associated computer viainterface 316.

Part II—Overview of the Areas of the Core System

As paper-digital integration becomes more common, there are many aspectsof existing technologies that can be changed to take better advantage ofthis integration, or to enable it to be implemented more effectively.This section highlights some of those issues.

3. Search

Searching a corpus of documents, even so large a corpus as the WorldWide Web, has become commonplace for ordinary users, who use a keyboardto construct a search query which is sent to a search engine. Thissection and the next discuss the aspects of both the construction of aquery originated by a capture from a rendered document, and the searchengine that handles such a query.

3.1. Scan/Speak/Type as Search Query

Use of the described system typically starts with a few words beingcaptured from a rendered document using any of several methods,including those mentioned in Section 1.2 above. Where the input needssome interpretation to convert it to text, for example in the case ofOCR or speech input, there may be end-to-end feedback in the system sothat the document corpus can be used to enhance the recognition process.End-to-end feedback can be applied by performing an approximation of therecognition or interpretation, identifying a set of one or morecandidate matching documents, and then using information from thepossible matches in the candidate documents to further refine orrestrict the recognition or interpretation. Candidate documents can beweighted according to their probable relevance (for example, based onthen number of other users who have scanned in these documents, or theirpopularity on the Internet), and these weights can be applied in thisiterative recognition process.

3.2. Short Phrase Searching

Because the selective power of a search query based on a few words isgreatly enhanced when the relative positions of these words are known,only a small amount of text need be captured for the system to identifythe text's location in a corpus. Most commonly, the input text will be acontiguous sequence of words, such as a short phrase.

3.2.1. Finding Document and Location in Document from Short Capture

In addition to locating the document from which a phrase originates, thesystem can identify the location in that document and can take actionbased on this knowledge.

3.2.2. Other Methods of Finding Location

The system may also employ other methods of discovering the document andlocation, such as by using watermarks or other special markings on therendered document.

3.3. Incorporation of Other Factors in Search Query

In addition to the captured text, other factors (i.e., information aboutuser identity, profile, and context) may form part of the search query,such as the time of the capture, the identity and geographical locationof the user, knowledge of the user's habits and recent activities, etc.

The document identity and other information related to previouscaptures, especially if they were quite recent, may form part of asearch query.

The identity of the user may be determined from a unique identifierassociated with a capturing device, and/or biometric or othersupplemental information (speech patterns, fingerprints, etc.).

3.4. Knowledge of Nature of Unreliability in Search Query (OCR Errorsetc)

The search query can be constructed taking into account the types oferrors likely to occur in the particular capture method used. Oneexample of this is an indication of suspected errors in the recognitionof specific characters; in this instance a search engine may treat thesecharacters as wildcards, or assign them a lower priority.

3.5. Local Caching of Index for Performance/offline Use

Sometimes the capturing device may not be in communication with thesearch engine or corpus at the time of the data capture. For thisreason, information helpful to the offline use of the device may bedownloaded to the device in advance, or to some entity with which thedevice can communicate. In some cases, all or a substantial part of anindex associated with a corpus may be downloaded. This topic isdiscussed further in Section 15.3.

3.6. Queries, in Whatever Form, may be Recorded and Acted on Later

If there are likely to be delays or cost associated with communicating aquery or receiving the results, this pre-loaded information can improvethe performance of the local device, reduce communication costs, andprovide helpful and timely user feedback.

In the situation where no communication is available (the local deviceis “offline”), the queries may be saved and transmitted to the rest ofthe system at such a time as communication is restored.

In these cases it may be important to transmit a timestamp with eachquery. The time of the capture can be a significant factor in theinterpretation of the query. For example, Section 13.1 discusses theimportance of the time of capture in relation to earlier captures. It isimportant to note that the time of capture will not always be the sameas the time that the query is executed.

3.7. Parallel Searching

For performance reasons, multiple queries may be launched in response toa single capture, either in sequence or in parallel. Several queries maybe sent in response to a single capture, for example as new words areadded to the capture, or to query multiple search engines in parallel.

For example, in some embodiments, the system sends queries to a specialindex for the current document, to a search engine on a local machine,to a search engine on the corporate network, and to remote searchengines on the Internet.

The results of particular searches may be given higher priority thanthose from others.

The response to a given query may indicate that other pending queriesare superfluous; these may be cancelled before completion.

4. Paper and Search Engines

Often it is desirable for a search engine that handles traditionalonline queries also to handle those originating from rendered documents.Conventional search engines may be enhanced or modified in a number ofways to make them more suitable for use with the described system.

The search engine and/or other components of the system may create andmaintain indices that have different or extra features. The system maymodify an incoming paper-originated query or change the way the query ishandled in the resulting search, thus distinguishing thesepaper-originated queries from those coming from queries typed into webbrowsers and other sources. And the system may take different actions oroffer different options when the results are returned by the searchesoriginated from paper as compared to those from other sources. Each ofthese approaches is discussed below.

4.1. Indexing

Often, the same index can be searched using either paper-originated ortraditional queries, but the index may be enhanced for use in thecurrent system in a variety of ways.

4.1.1. Knowledge About the Paper Form

Extra fields can be added to such an index that will help in the case ofa paper-based search.

Index Entry Indicating Document Availability in Paper Form

The first example is a field indicating that the document is known toexist or be distributed in paper form. The system may give suchdocuments higher priority if the query comes from paper.

Knowledge of Popularity Paper Form

In this example statistical data concerning the popularity of paperdocuments (and, optionally, concerning sub-regions within thesedocuments)—for example the amount of scanning activity, circulationnumbers provided by the publisher or other sources, etc—is used to givesuch documents higher priority, to boost the priority of digitalcounterpart documents (for example, for browser-based queries or websearches), etc.

Knowledge of Rendered Format

Another important example may be recording information about the layoutof a specific rendering of a document.

For a particular edition of a book, for example, the index may includeinformation about where the line breaks and page breaks occur, whichfonts were used, any unusual capitalization.

The index may also include information about the proximity of otheritems on the page, such as images, text boxes, tables andadvertisements.

Use of Semantic Information in Original

Lastly, semantic information that can be deduced from the source markupbut is not apparent in the paper document, such as the fact that aparticular piece of text refers to an item offered for sale, or that acertain paragraph contains program code, may also be recorded in theindex.

4.1.2. Indexing in the Knowledge of the Capture Method

A second factor that may modify the nature of the index is the knowledgeof the type of capture likely to be used. A search initiated by anoptical scan may benefit if the index takes into account characters thatare easily confused in the OCR process, or includes some knowledge ofthe fonts used in the document. Similarly, if the query is from speechrecognition, an index based on similar-sounding phonemes may be muchmore efficiently searched. An additional factor that may affect the useof the index in the described model is the importance of iterativefeedback during the recognition process. If the search engine is able toprovide feedback from the index as the text is being captured, it cangreatly increase the accuracy of the capture.

Indexing Using Offsets

If the index is likely to be searched using theoffset-based/autocorrelation OCR methods described in Section 9, in someembodiments, the system stores the appropriate offset or signatureinformation in an index.

4.1.3. Multiple Indices

Lastly, in the described system, it may be common to conduct searches onmany indices. Indices may be maintained on several machines on acorporate network. Partial indices may be downloaded to the capturedevice, or to a machine close to the capture device. Separate indicesmay be created for users or groups of users with particular interests,habits or permissions. An index may exist for each filesystem, eachdirectory, even each file on a user's hard disk. Indexes are publishedand subscribed to by users and by systems. It will be important, then,to construct indices that can be distributed, updated, merged andseparated efficiently.

4.2. Handling the Queries

4.2.1. Knowing the Capture is from Paper

A search engine may take different actions when it recognizes that asearch query originated from a paper document. The engine might handlethe query in a way that is more tolerant to the types of errors likelyto appear in certain capture methods, for example.

It may be able to deduce this from some indicator included in the query(for example a flag indicating the nature of the capture), or it maydeduce this from the query itself (for example, it may recognize errorsor uncertainties typical of the OCR process).

Alternatively, queries from a capture device can reach the engine by adifferent channel or port or type of connection than those from othersources, and can be distinguished in that way. For example, someembodiments of the system will route queries to the search engine by wayof a dedicated gateway. Thus, the search engine knows that all queriespassing through the dedicated gateway were originated from a paperdocument.

4.2.2. Use of Context

Section 13 below describes a variety of different factors which areexternal to the captured text itself, yet which can be a significant aidin identifying a document. These include such things as the history ofrecent scans, the longer-term reading habits of a particular user, thegeographic location of a user and the user's recent use of particularelectronic documents. Such factors are referred to herein as “context.”

Some of the context may be handled by the search engine itself, and bereflected in the search results. For example, the search engine may keeptrack of a user's scanning history, and may also cross-reference thisscanning history to conventional keyboard-based queries. In such cases,the search engine maintains and uses more state information about eachindividual user than do most conventional search engines, and eachinteraction with a search engine may be considered to extend overseveral searches and a longer period of time than is typical today.

Some of the context may be transmitted to the search engine in thesearch query (Section 3.3), and may possibly be stored at the engine soas to play a part in future queries. Lastly, some of the context willbest be handled elsewhere, and so becomes a filter or secondary searchapplied to the results from the search engine.

Data-stream Input to Search

An important input into the search process is the broader context of howthe community of users is interacting with the rendered version of thedocument—for example, which documents are most widely read and by whom.There are analogies with a web search returning the pages that are mostfrequently linked to, or those that are most frequently selected frompast search results. For further discussion of this topic, see Sections13.4 and 14.2.

4.2.3. Document Sub-regions

The described system can emit and use not only information aboutdocuments as a whole, but also information about sub-regions ofdocuments, even down to individual words. Many existing search enginesconcentrate simply on locating a document or file that is relevant to aparticular query. Those that can work on a finer grain and identify alocation within a document will provide a significant benefit for thedescribed system.

4.3. Returning the Results

The search engine may use some of the further information it nowmaintains to affect the results returned.

The system may also return certain documents to which the user hasaccess only as a result of being in possession of the paper copy(Section 7.4).

The search engine may also offer new actions or options appropriate tothe described system, beyond simple retrieval of the text.

5. Markup, Annotations and Metadata

In addition to performing the capture-search-retrieve process, thedescribed system also associates extra functionality with a document,and in particular with specific locations or segments of text within adocument. This extra functionality is often, though not exclusively,associated with the rendered document by being associated with itselectronic counterpart. As an example, hyperlinks in a web page couldhave the same functionality when a printout of that web page is scanned.In some cases, the functionality is not defined in the electronicdocument, but is stored or generated elsewhere.

This layer of added functionality is referred to herein as “markup.”

5.1. Overlays, Static and Dynamic

One way to think of the markup is as an “overlay” on the document, whichprovides further information about—and may specify actions associatedwith—the document or some portion of it. The markup may includehuman-readable content, but is often invisible to a user and/or intendedfor machine use. Examples include options to be displayed in apopup-menu on a nearby display when a user captures text from aparticular area in a rendered document, or audio samples that illustratethe pronunciation of a particular phrase.

5.1.1. Several Layers, Possibly from Several Sources

Any document may have multiple overlays simultaneously, and these may besourced from a variety of locations. Markup data may be created orsupplied by the author of the document, or by the user, or by some otherparty.

Markup data may be attached to the electronic document or embedded init. It may be found in a conventional location (for example, in the sameplace as the document but with a different filename suffix). Markup datamay be included in the search results of the query that located theoriginal document, or may be found by a separate query to the same oranother search engine. Markup data may be found using the originalcaptured text and other capture information or contextual information,or it may be found using already-deduced information about the documentand location of the capture. Markup data may be found in a locationspecified in the document, even if the markup itself is not included inthe document.

The markup may be largely static and specific to the document, similarto the way links on a traditional html web page are often embedded asstatic data within the html document, but markup may also be dynamicallygenerated and/or applied to a large number of documents. An example ofdynamic markup is information attached to a document that includes theup-to-date share price of companies mentioned in that document. Anexample of broadly applied markup is translation information that isautomatically available on multiple documents or sections of documentsin a particular language.

5.1.2. Personal “Plug-in” Layers

Users may also install, or subscribe to particular sources of, markupdata, thus personalizing the system's response to particular captures.

5.2. Keywords and Phrases, Trademarks and Logos

Some elements in documents may have particular “markup” or functionalityassociated with them based on their own characteristics rather thantheir location in a particular document. Examples include special marksthat are printed in the document purely for the purpose of beingscanned, as well as logos and trademarks that can link the user tofurther information about the organization concerned. The same appliesto “keywords” or “key phrases” in the text. Organizations might registerparticular phrases with which they are associated, or with which theywould like to be associated, and attach certain markup to them thatwould be available wherever that phrase was scanned.

Any word, phrase, etc. may have associated markup. For example, thesystem may add certain items to a pop-up menu (e.g., a link to an onlinebookstore) whenever the user captures the word “book,” or the title of abook, or a topic related to books. In some embodiments, of the system,digital counterpart documents or indices are consulted to determinewhether a capture occurred near the word “book,” or the title of a book,or a topic related to books—and the system behavior is modified inaccordance with this proximity to keyword elements. In the precedingexample, note that markup enables data captured from non-commercial textor documents to trigger a commercial transaction.

5.3. User-supplied Content

5.3.1. User Comments and Annotations, Including Multimedia

Annotations are another type of electronic information that may beassociated with a document. For example, a user can attach an audio fileof his/her thoughts about a particular document for later retrieval asvoice annotations. As another example of a multimedia annotation, a usermay attach photographs of places referred to in the document. The usergenerally supplies annotations for the document but the system canassociate annotations from other sources (for example, other users in awork group may share annotations).

5.3.2. Notes from Proof-reading

An important example of user-sourced markup is the annotation of paperdocuments as part of a proofreading, editing or reviewing process.

5.4. Third-party Content

As mentioned earlier, markup data may often be supplied by thirdparties, such as by other readers of the document. Online discussionsand reviews are a good example, as are community-managed informationrelating to particular works, volunteer-contributed translations andexplanations.

Another example of third-party markup is that provided by advertisers.

5.5. Dynamic Markup Based on Other Users' Data Streams

By analyzing the data captured from documents by several or all users ofthe system, markup can be generated based on the activities andinterests of a community. An example might be an online bookstore thatcreates markup or annotations that tell the user, in effect, “People whoenjoyed this book also enjoyed . . . ” The markup may be less anonymous,and may tell the user which of the people in his/her contact list havealso read this document recently. Other examples of datastream analysisare included in Section 14.

5.6. Markup Based on External Events and Data Sources

Markup will often be based on external events and data sources, such asinput from a corporate database, information from the public Internet,or statistics gathered by the local operating system.

Data sources may also be more local, and in particular may provideinformation about the user's context—his/her identity, location andactivities. For example, the system might communicate with the user'smobile phone and offer a markup layer that gives the user the option tosend a document to somebody that the user has recently spoken to on thephone.

6. Authentication, Personalization and Security

In many situations, the identity of the user will be known. Sometimesthis will be an “anonymous identity,” where the user is identified onlyby the serial number of the capture device, for example. Typically,however, it is expected that the system will have a much more detailedknowledge of the user, which can be used for personalizing the systemand to allow activities and transactions to be performed in the user'sname.

6.1. User History and “Life Library”

One of the simplest and yet most useful functions that the system canperform is to keep a record for a user of the text that s/he hascaptured and any further information related to that capture, includingthe details of any documents found, the location within that documentand any actions taken as a result.

This stored history is beneficial for both the user and the system.

6.1.1. For the User

The user can be presented with a “Life Library,” a record of everythings/he has read and captured. This may be simply for personal interest,but may be used, for example, in a library by an academic who isgathering material for the bibliography of his next paper.

In some circumstances, the user may wish to make the library public,such as by publishing it on the web in a similar manner to a weblog, sothat others may see what s/he is reading and finds of interest.

Lastly, in situations where the user captures some text and the systemcannot immediately act upon the capture (for example, because anelectronic version of the document is not yet available) the capture canbe stored in the library and can be processed later, eitherautomatically or in response to a user request. A user can alsosubscribe to new markup services and apply them to previously capturedscans.

6.1.2. For the System

A record of a user's past captures is also useful for the system. Manyaspects of the system operation can be enhanced by knowing the user'sreading habits and history. The simplest example is that any scan madeby a user is more likely to come from a document that the user hasscanned in the recent past, and in particular if the previous scan waswithin the last few minutes it is very likely to be from the samedocument. Similarly, it is more likely that a document is being read instart-to-finish order. Thus, for English documents, it is also morelikely that later scans will occur farther down in the document. Suchfactors can help the system establish the location of the capture incases of ambiguity, and can also reduce the amount of text that needs tobe captured.

6.2. Scanner as Payment, Identity and Authentication Device

Because the capture process generally begins with a device of some sort,typically an optical scanner or voice recorder, this device may be usedas a key that identifies the user and authorizes certain actions.

6.2.1. Associate Scanner with Phone or Other Account

The device may be embedded in a mobile phone or in some other wayassociated with a mobile phone account. For example, a scanner may beassociated with a mobile phone account by inserting a SIM cardassociated with the account into the scanner. Similarly, the device maybe embedded in a credit card or other payment card, or have the facilityfor such a card to be connected to it. The device may therefore be usedas a payment token, and financial transactions may be initiated by thecapture from the rendered document.

6.2.2. Using Scanner Input for Authentication

The scanner may also be associated with a particular user or accountthrough the process of scanning some token, symbol or text associatedwith that user or account. In addition, scanner may be used forbiometric identification, for example by scanning the fingerprint of theuser. In the case of an audio-based capture device, the system mayidentify the user by matching the voice pattern of the user or byrequiring the user to speak a certain password or phrase.

For example, where a user scans a quote from a book and is offered theoption to buy the book from an online retailer, the user can select thisoption, and is then prompted to scan his/her fingerprint to confirm thetransaction.

See also Sections 15.5 and 15.6.

6.2.3. Secure Scanning Device

When the capture device is used to identify and authenticate the user,and to initiate transactions on behalf of the user, it is important thatcommunications between the device and other parts of the system aresecure. It is also important to guard against such situations as anotherdevice impersonating a scanner, and so-called “man in the middle”attacks where communications between the device and other components areintercepted.

Techniques for providing such security are well understood in the art;in various embodiments, the hardware and software in the device andelsewhere in the system are configured to implement such techniques.

7. Publishing Models and Elements

An advantage of the described system is that there is no need to alterthe traditional processes of creating, printing or publishing documentsin order to gain many of the system's benefits. There are reasons,though, that the creators or publishers of a document—hereafter simplyreferred to as the “publishers”—may wish to create functionality tosupport the described system.

This section is primarily concerned with the published documentsthemselves. For information about other related commercial transactions,such as advertising, see Section 10 entitled “P-Commerce.”

7.1. Electronic Companions to Printed Documents

The system allows for printed documents to have an associated electronicpresence. Conventionally publishers often ship a CD-ROM with a book thatcontains further digital information, tutorial movies and othermultimedia data, sample code or documents, or further referencematerials. In addition, some publishers maintain web sites associatedwith particular publications which provide such materials, as well asinformation which may be updated after the time of publishing, such aserrata, further comments, updated reference materials, bibliographiesand further sources of relevant data, and translations into otherlanguages. Online forums allow readers to contribute their commentsabout the publication.

The described system allows such materials to be much more closely tiedto the rendered document than ever before, and allows the discovery ofand interaction with them to be much easier for the user. By capturing aportion of text from the document, the system can automatically connectthe user to digital materials associated with the document, and moreparticularly associated with that specific part of the document.Similarly, the user can be connected to online communities that discussthat section of the text, or to annotations and commentaries by otherreaders. In the past, such information would typically need to be foundby searching for a particular page number or chapter.

An example application of this is in the area of academic textbooks(Section 17.5).

7.2. “Subscriptions” to Printed Documents

Some publishers may have mailing lists to which readers can subscribe ifthey wish to be notified of new relevant matter or when a new edition ofthe book is published. With the described system, the user can registeran interest in particular documents or parts of documents more easily,in some cases even before the publisher has considered providing anysuch functionality. The reader's interest can be fed to the publisher,possibly affecting their decision about when and where to provideupdates, further information, new editions or even completely newpublications on topics that have proved to be of interest in existingbooks.

7.3. Printed Marks with Special Meaning or Containing Special Data

Many aspects of the system are enabled simply through the use of thetext already existing in a document. If the document is produced in theknowledge that it may be used in conjunction with the system, however,extra functionality can be added by printing extra information in theform of special marks, which may be used to identify the text or arequired action more closely, or otherwise enhance the document'sinteraction with the system. The simplest and most important example isan indication to the reader that the document is definitely accessiblethrough the system. A special icon might be used, for example, toindicate that this document has an online discussion forum associatedwith it.

Such symbols may be intended purely for the reader, or they may berecognized by the system when scanned and used to initiate some action.Sufficient data may be encoded in the symbol to identify more than justthe symbol: it may also store information, for example about thedocument, edition, and location of the symbol, which could be recognizedand read by the system.

7.4. Authorization through Possession of the Paper Document

There are some situations where possession of or access to the printeddocument would entitle the user to certain privileges, for example, theaccess to an electronic copy of the document or to additional materials.With the described system, such privileges could be granted simply as aresult of the user capturing portions of text from the document, orscanning specially printed symbols. In cases where the system needed toensure that the user was in possession of the entire document, it mightprompt the user to scan particular items or phrases from particularpages, e.g. “the second line of page 46.”

7.5. Documents which Expire

If the printed document is a gateway to extra materials andfunctionality, access to such features can also be time-limited. Afterthe expiry date, a user may be required to pay a fee or obtain a newerversion of the document to access the features again. The paper documentwill, of course, still be usable, but will lose some of its enhancedelectronic functionality. This may be desirable, for example, becausethere is profit for the publisher in receiving fees for access toelectronic materials, or in requiring the user to purchase new editionsfrom time to time, or because there are disadvantages associated withoutdated versions of the printed document remaining in circulation.Coupons are an example of a type of commercial document that can have anexpiration date.

7.6. Popularity Analysis and Publishing Decisions

Section 10.5 discusses the use of the system's statistics to influencecompensation of authors and pricing of advertisements.

In some embodiments, the system deduces the popularity of a publicationfrom the activity in the electronic community associated with it as wellas from the use of the paper document. These factors may help publishersto make decisions about what they will publish in future. If a chapterin an existing book, for example, turns out to be exceedingly popular,it may be worth expanding into a separate publication.

8. Document Access Services

An important aspect of the described system is the ability to provide toa user who has access to a rendered copy of a document access to anelectronic version of that document. In some cases, a document is freelyavailable on a public network or a private network to which the user hasaccess. The system uses the captured text to identify, locate andretrieve the document, in some cases displaying it on the user's screenor depositing it in their email inbox.

In some cases, a document will be available in electronic form, but fora variety of reasons may not be accessible to the user. There may not besufficient connectivity to retrieve the document, the user may not beentitled to retrieve it, there may be a cost associated with gainingaccess to it, or the document may have been withdrawn and possiblyreplaced by a new version, to name just a few possibilities. The systemtypically provides feedback to the user about these situations.

As mentioned in Section 7.4, the degree or nature of the access grantedto a particular user may be different if it is known that the useralready has access to a printed copy of the document.

8.1. Authenticated Document Access

Access to the document may be restricted to specific users, or to thosemeeting particular criteria, or may only be available in certaincircumstances, for example when the user is connected to a securenetwork. Section 6 describes some of the ways in which the credentialsof a user and scanner may be established.

8.2. Document Purchase—Copyright-owner Compensation

Documents that are not freely available to the general public may stillbe accessible on payment of a fee, often as compensation to thepublisher or copyright-holder. The system may implement paymentfacilities directly or may make use of other payment methods associatedwith the user, including those described in Section 6.2.

8.3. Document Escrow and Proactive Retrieval

Electronic documents are often transient; the digital source version ofa rendered document may be available now but inaccessible in future. Thesystem may retrieve and store the existing version on behalf of theuser, even if the user has not requested it, thus guaranteeing itsavailability should the user request it in future. This also makes itavailable for the system's use, for example for searching as part of theprocess of identifying future captures.

In the event that payment is required for access to the document, atrusted “document escrow” service can retrieve the document on behalf ofthe user, such as upon payment of a modest fee, with the assurance thatthe copyright holder will be fully compensated in future if the usershould ever request the document from the service.

Variations on this theme can be implemented if the document is notavailable in electronic form at the time of capture. The user canauthorize the service to submit a request for or make a payment for thedocument on his/her behalf if the electronic document should becomeavailable at a later date.

8.4. Association with other Subscriptions and Accounts

Sometimes payment may be waived, reduced or satisfied based on theuser's existing association with another account or subscription.Subscribers to the printed version of a newspaper might automatically beentitled to retrieve the electronic version, for example.

In other cases, the association may not be quite so direct: a user maybe granted access based on an account established by their employer, orbased on their scanning of a printed copy owned by a friend who is asubscriber.

8.5. Replacing Photocopying with Scan-and-print

The process of capturing text from a paper document, identifying anelectronic original, and printing that original, or some portion of thatoriginal associated with the capture, forms an alternative totraditional photocopying with many advantages:

-   -   the paper document need not be in the same location as the final        printout, and in any case need not be there at the same time    -   the wear and damage caused to documents by the photocopying        process, especially to old, fragile and valuable documents, can        be avoided    -   the quality of the copy is typically be much higher    -   records may be kept about which documents or portions of        documents are the most frequently copied    -   payment may be made to the copyright owner as part of the        process    -   unauthorized copying may be prohibited

8.6. Locating Valuable Originals from Photocopies

When documents are particularly valuable, as in the case of legalinstruments or documents that have historical or other particularsignificance, people may typically work from copies of those documents,often for many years, while the originals are kept in a safe location.

The described system could be coupled to a database which records thelocation of an original document, for example in an archiving warehouse,making it easy for somebody with access to a copy to locate the archivedoriginal paper document.

9. Text Recognition Technologies

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies have traditionallyfocused on images that include a large amount of text, for example froma flat-bed scanner capturing a whole page. OCR technologies often needsubstantial training and correcting by the user to produce useful text.OCR technologies often require substantial processing power on themachine doing the OCR, and, while many systems use a dictionary, theyare generally expected to operate on an effectively infinite vocabulary.

All of the above traditional characteristics may be improved upon in thedescribed system.

While this section focuses on OCR, many of the issues discussed mapdirectly onto other recognition technologies, in particular speechrecognition. As mentioned in Section 3.1, the process of capturing frompaper may be achieved by a user reading the text aloud into a devicewhich captures audio. Those skilled in the art will appreciate thatprinciples discussed here with respect to images, fonts, and textfragments often also apply to audio samples, user speech models andphonemes.

9.1. Optimization for Appropriate Devices

A scanning device for use with the described system will often be small,portable, and low power. The scanning device may capture only a fewwords at a time, and in some implementations does not even capture awhole character at once, but rather a horizontal slice through the text,many such slices being stitched together to form a recognizable signalfrom which the text may be deduced. The scanning device may also havevery limited processing power or storage so, while in some embodimentsit may perform all of the OCR process itself, many embodiments willdepend on a connection to a more powerful device, possibly at a latertime, to convert the captured signals into text. Lastly, it may havevery limited facilities for user interaction, so may need to defer anyrequests for user input until later, or operate in a “best-guess” modeto a greater degree than is common now.

9.2. “Uncertain” OCR

The primary new characteristic of OCR within the described system is thefact that it will, in general, examine images of text which existselsewhere and which may be retrieved in digital form. An exacttranscription of the text is therefore not always required from the OCRengine. The OCR system may output a set or a matrix of possible matches,in some cases including probability weightings, which can still be usedto search for the digital original.

9.3. Iterative OCR—Guess, Disambiguate, Guess . . .

If the device performing the recognition is able to contact the documentindex at the time of processing, then the OCR process can be informed bythe contents of the document corpus as it progresses, potentiallyoffering substantially greater recognition accuracy.

Such a connection will also allow the device to inform the user whensufficient text has been captured to identify the digital source.

9.4. Using Knowledge of Likely Rendering

When the system has knowledge of aspects of the likely printed renderingof a document—such as the font typeface used in printing, or the layoutof the page, or which sections are in italics—this too can help in therecognition process. (Section 4.1.1)

9.5. Font Caching—Determine Font on Host, Download to Client

As candidate source texts in the document corpus are identified, thefont, or a rendering of it, may be downloaded to the device to help withthe recognition.

9.6. Autocorrelation and Character Offsets

While component characters of a text fragment may be the most recognizedway to represent a fragment of text that may be used as a documentsignature, other representations of the text may work sufficiently wellthat the actual text of a text fragment need not be used when attemptingto locate the text fragment in a digital document and/or database, orwhen disambiguating the representation of a text fragment into areadable form. Other representations of text fragments may providebenefits that actual text representations lack. For example, opticalcharacter recognition of text fragments is often prone to errors, unlikeother representations of captured text fragments that may be used tosearch for and/or recreate a text fragment without resorting to opticalcharacter recognition for the entire fragment. Such methods may be moreappropriate for some devices used with the current system.

Those of ordinary skill in the art and others will appreciate that thereare many ways of describing the appearance of text fragments. Suchcharacterizations of text fragments may include, but are not limited to,word lengths, relative word lengths, character heights, characterwidths, character shapes, character frequencies, token frequencies, andthe like. In some embodiments, the offsets between matching text tokens(i.e., the number of intervening tokens plus one) are used tocharacterize fragments of text.

Conventional OCR uses knowledge about fonts, letter structure and shapeto attempt to determine characters in scanned text. Embodiments of thepresent invention are different; they employ a variety of methods thatuse the rendered text itself to assist in the recognition process. Theseembodiments use characters (or tokens) to “recognize each other.” Oneway to refer to such self-recognition is “template matching,” and issimilar to “convolution.” To perform such self-recognition, the systemslides a copy of the text horizontally over itself and notes matchingregions of the text images. Prior template matching and convolutiontechniques encompass a variety of related techniques. These techniquesto tokenize and/or recognize characters/tokens will be collectivelyreferred to herein as “autocorrelation,” as the text is used tocorrelate with its own component parts when matching characters/tokens.

When autocorrelating, complete connected regions that match are ofinterest. This occurs when characters (or groups of characters) overlayother instances of the same character (or group). Complete connectedregions that match automatically provide tokenizing of the text intocomponent tokens. As the two copies of the text are slid past eachother, the regions where perfect matching occurs (i.e., all pixels in avertical slice are matched) are noted. When a character/token matchesitself, the horizontal extent of this matching (e.g., the connectedmatching portion of the text) also matches.

Note that at this stage there is no need to determine the actualidentity of each token (i.e., the particular letter, digit or symbol, orgroup of these, that corresponds to the token image), only the offset tothe next occurrence of the same token in the scanned text. The offsetnumber is the distance (number of tokens) to the next occurrence of thesame token. If the token is unique within the text string, the offset iszero (0). The sequence of token offsets thus generated is a signaturethat can be used to identify the scanned text.

In some embodiments, the token offsets determined for a string ofscanned tokens are compared to an index that indexes a corpus ofelectronic documents based upon the token offsets of their contents(Section 4.1.2). In other embodiments, the token offsets determined fora string of scanned tokens are converted to text, and compared to a moreconventional index that indexes a corpus of electronic documents basedupon their contents

As has been noted earlier, a similar token-correlation process may beapplied to speech fragments when the capture process consists of audiosamples of spoken words.

9.7. Font/character “Self-recognition”

Conventional template-matching OCR compares scanned images to a libraryof character images. In essence, the alphabet is stored for each fontand newly scanned images are compared to the stored images to findmatching characters. The process generally has an initial delay untilthe correct font has been identified. After that, the OCR process isrelatively quick because most documents use the same font throughout.Subsequent images can therefore be converted to text by comparison withthe most recently identified font library.

The shapes of characters in most commonly used fonts are related. Forexample, in most fonts, the letter “c” and the letter “e” are visuallyrelated—as are “t” and “f,” etc. The OCR process is enhanced by use ofthis relationship to construct templates for letters that have not beenscanned yet. For example, where a reader scans a short string of textfrom a paper document in a previously unencountered font such that thesystem does not have a set of image templates with which to compare thescanned images the system can leverage the probable relationship betweencertain characters to construct the font template library even though ithas not yet encountered all of the letters in the alphabet. The systemcan then use the constructed font template library to recognizesubsequent scanned text and to further refine the constructed fontlibrary.

9.8. Send Anything Unrecognized (Including Graphics) to Server

When images cannot be machine-transcribed into a form suitable for usein a search process, the images themselves can be saved for later use bythe user, for possible manual transcription, or for processing at alater date when different resources may be available to the system.

10. P-Commerce

Many of the actions made possible by the system result in somecommercial transaction taking place. The phrase p-commerce is usedherein to describe commercial activities initiated from paper via thesystem.

10.1. Sales of Documents from their Physical Printed Copies.

When a user captures text from a document, the user may be offered thatdocument for purchase either in paper or electronic form. The user mayalso be offered related documents, such as those quoted or otherwisereferred to in the paper document, or those on a similar subject, orthose by the same author.

10.2. Sales of Anything Else Initiated or Aided by Paper

The capture of text may be linked to other commercial activities in avariety of ways. The captured text may be in a catalog that isexplicitly designed to sell items, in which case the text will beassociated fairly directly with the purchase of an item (Section 18.2).The text may also be part of an advertisement, in which case a sale ofthe item being advertised may ensue.

In other cases, the user captures other text from which their potentialinterest in a commercial transaction may be deduced. A reader of a novelset in a particular country, for example, might be interested in aholiday there. Someone reading a review of a new car might beconsidering purchasing it. The user may capture a particular fragment oftext knowing that some commercial opportunity will be presented to themas a result, or it may be a side-effect of their capture activities.

10.3. Capture of Labels, Icons, Serial Numbers, Barcodes on an ItemResulting in a Sale

Sometimes text or symbols are actually printed on an item or itspackaging. An example is the serial number or product id often found ona label on the back or underside of a piece of electronic equipment. Thesystem can offer the user a convenient way to purchase one or more ofthe same items by capturing that text. They may also be offered manuals,support or repair services.

10.4. Contextual Advertisements

In addition to the direct capture of text from an advertisement, thesystem allows for a new kind of advertising which is not necessarilyexplicitly in the rendered document, but is nonetheless based on whatpeople are reading.

10.4.1. Advertising Based on Scan Context and History

In a traditional paper publication, advertisements generally consume alarge amount of space relative to the text of a newspaper article, and alimited number of them can be placed around a particular article. In thedescribed system, advertising can be associated with individual words orphrases, and can selected according to the particular interest the userhas shown by capturing that text and possibly taking into account theirhistory of past scans.

With the described system, it is possible for a purchase to be tied to aparticular printed document and for an advertiser to get significantlymore feedback about the effectiveness of their advertising in particularprint publications.

10.4.2. Advertising Based on User Context and History

The system may gather a large amount of information about other aspectsof a user's context for its own use (Section 13); estimates of thegeographical location of the user are a good example. Such data can alsobe used to tailor the advertising presented to a user of the system.

10.5. Models of Compensation

The system enables some new models of compensation for advertisers andmarketers. The publisher of a printed document containing advertisementsmay receive some income from a purchase that originated from theirdocument. This may be true whether or not the advertisement existed inthe original printed form; it may have been added electronically eitherby the publisher, the advertiser or some third party, and the sources ofsuch advertising may have been subscribed to by the user.

10.5.1. Popularity-based Compensation

Analysis of the statistics generated by the system can reveal thepopularity of certain parts of a publication (Section 14.2). In anewspaper, for example, it might reveal the amount of time readers spendlooking at a particular page or article, or the popularity of aparticular columnist. In some circumstances, it may be appropriate foran author or publisher to receive compensation based on the activitiesof the readers rather than on more traditional metrics such as wordswritten or number of copies distributed. An author whose work becomes afrequently read authority on a subject might be considered differentlyin future contracts from one whose books have sold the same number ofcopies but are rarely opened. (See also Section 7.6)

10.5.2. Popularity-based Advertising

Decisions about advertising in a document may also be based onstatistics about the readership. The advertising space around the mostpopular columnists may be sold at a premium rate. Advertisers might evenbe charged or compensated some time after the document is publishedbased on knowledge about how it was received.

10.6. Marketing Based on Life Library

The “Life Library” or scan history described in Sections 6.1 and 16.1can be an extremely valuable source of information about the interestsand habits of a user. Subject to the appropriate consent and privacyissues, such data can inform offers of goods or services to the user.Even in an anonymous form, the statistics gathered can be exceedinglyuseful.

10.7. Sale/information at Later Date (when Available)

Advertising and other opportunities for commercial transactions may notbe presented to the user immediately at the time of text capture. Forexample, the opportunity to purchase a sequel to a novel may not beavailable at the time the user is reading the novel, but the system maypresent them with that opportunity when the sequel is published.

A user may capture data that relates to a purchase or other commercialtransaction, but may choose not to initiate and/or complete thetransaction at the time the capture is made. In some embodiments, datarelated to captures is stored in a user's Life Library, and these LifeLibrary entries can remain “active” (i.e., capable of subsequentinteractions similar to those available at the time the capture wasmade). Thus a user may review a capture at some later time, andoptionally complete a transaction based on that capture. Because thesystem can keep track of when and where the original capture occurred,all parties involved in the transaction can be properly compensated. Forexample, the author who wrote the story—and the publisher who publishedthe story—that appeared next to the advertisement from which the usercaptured data can be compensated when, six months later, the user visitstheir Life Library, selects that particular capture from the history,and chooses “Purchase this item at Amazon” from the pop-up menu (whichcan be similar or identical to the menu optionally presented at the timeof the capture).

11. Operating System and Application Integration

Modern Operating Systems (OSs) and other software packages have manycharacteristics that can be advantageously exploited for use with thedescribed system, and may also be modified in various ways to provide aneven better platform for its use.

11.1. Incorporation of Scan and Print-related Information in Metadataand Indexing

New and upcoming file systems and their associated databases often havethe ability to store a variety of metadata associated with each file.Traditionally, this metadata has included such things as the ID of theuser who created the file, the dates of creation, last modification, andlast use. Newer file systems allow such extra information as keywords,image characteristics, document sources and user comments to be stored,and in some systems this metadata can be arbitrarily extended. Filesystems can therefore be used to store information that would be usefulin implementing the current system. For example, the date when a givendocument was last printed can be stored by the file system, as candetails about which text from it has been captured from paper using thedescribed system, and when and by whom.

Operating systems are also starting to incorporate search enginefacilities that allow users to find local files more easily. Thesefacilities can be advantageously used by the system. It means that manyof the search-related concepts discussed in Sections 3 and 4 apply notjust to today's Internet-based and similar search engines, but also toevery personal computer.

In some cases specific software applications will also include supportfor the system above and beyond the facilities provided by the OS.

11.2. OS Support for Capture Devices

As the use of capture devices such as pen scanners becomes increasinglycommon, it will become desirable to build support for them into theoperating system, in much the same way as support is provided for miceand printers, since the applicability of capture devices extends beyonda single software application. The same will be true for other aspectsof the system's operation. Some examples are discussed below. In someembodiments, the entire described system, or the core of it, is providedby the OS. In some embodiments, support for the system is provided byApplication Programming Interfaces (APIS) that can be used by othersoftware packages, including those directly implementing aspects of thesystem.

11.2.1. Support for OCR and other Recognition Technologies

Most of the methods of capturing text from a rendered document requiresome recognition software to interpret the source data, typically ascanned image or some spoken words, as text suitable for use in thesystem. Some OSs include support for speech or handwriting recognition,though it is less common for OSs to include support for OCR, since inthe past the use of OCR has typically been limited to a small range ofapplications.

As recognition components become part of the OS, they can take betteradvantage of other facilities provided by the OS. Many systems includespelling dictionaries, grammar analysis tools, internationalization andlocalization facilities, for example, all of which can be advantageouslyemployed by the described system for its recognition process, especiallysince they may have been customized for the particular user to includewords and phrases that he/she would commonly encounter.

If the operating system includes full-text indexing facilities, thenthese can also be used to inform the recognition process, as describedin Section 9.3.

11.2.2. Action to be Taken on Scans

If an optical scan or other capture occurs and is presented to the OS,it may have a default action to be taken under those circumstances inthe event that no other subsystem claims ownership of the capture. Anexample of a default action is presenting the user with a choice ofalternatives, or submitting the captured text to the OS's built-insearch facilities.

11.2.3. OS has Default Action for Particular Documents or Document Types

If the digital source of the rendered document is found, the OS may havea standard action that it will take when that particular document, or adocument of that class, is scanned. Applications and other subsystemsmay register with the OS as potential handlers of particular types ofcapture, in a similar manner to the announcement by applications oftheir ability to handle certain file types.

Markup data associated with a rendered document, or with a capture froma document, can include instructions to the operating system to launchspecific applications, pass applications arguments, parameters, or data,etc.

11.2.4. Interpretation of Gestures and Mapping into Standard Actions

In Section 12.1.3 the use of “gestures” is discussed, particularly inthe case of optical scanning, where particular movements made with ahandheld scanner might represent standard actions such as marking thestart and end of a region of text.

This is analogous to actions such as pressing the shift key on akeyboard while using the cursor keys to select a region of text, orusing the wheel on a mouse to scroll a document. Such actions by theuser are sufficiently standard that they are interpreted in asystem-wide way by the OS, thus ensuring consistent behavior. The sameis desirable for scanner gestures and other scanner-related actions.

11.2.5. Set Response to Standard (and Non-standard) Iconic/text PrintedMenu Items

In a similar way, certain items of text or other symbols may, whenscanned, cause standard actions to occur, and the OS may provide aselection of these. An example might be that scanning the text “[print]”in any document would cause the OS to retrieve and print a copy of thatdocument. The OS may also provide a way to register such actions andassociate them with particular scans.

11.3. Support in System GUI Components for Typical Scan-initiatedActivities

Most software applications are based substantially on standard GraphicalUser Interface components provided by the OS.

Use of these components by developers helps to ensure consistentbehavior across multiple packages, for example that pressing theleft-cursor key in any text-editing context should move the cursor tothe left, without every programmer having to implement the samefunctionality independently.

A similar consistency in these components is desirable when theactivities are initiated by text-capture or other aspects of thedescribed system. Some examples are given below.

11.3.1. Interface to Find Particular Text Content

A typical use of the system may be for the user to scan an area of apaper document, and for the system to open the electronic counterpart ina software package that is able to display or edit it, and cause thatpackage to scroll to and highlight the scanned text (Section 12.2.1).The first part of this process, finding and opening the electronicdocument, is typically provided by the OS and is standard acrosssoftware packages. The second part, however—locating a particular pieceof text within a document and causing the package to scroll to it andhighlight it—is not yet standardized and is often implementeddifferently by each package. The availability of a standard API for thisfunctionality could greatly enhance the operation of this aspect of thesystem.

11.3.2. Text Interactions

Once a piece of text has been located within a document, the system maywish to perform a variety of operations upon that text. As an example,the system may request the surrounding text, so that the user's captureof a few words could result in the system accessing the entire sentenceor paragraph containing them. Again, this functionality can be usefullyprovided by the OS rather than being implemented in every piece ofsoftware that handles text.

11.3.3. Contextual (Popup) Menus

Some of the operations that are enabled by the system will require userfeedback, and this may be optimally requested within the context of theapplication handling the data. In some embodiments, the system uses theapplication pop-up menus traditionally associated with clicking theright mouse button on some text. The system inserts extra options intosuch menus, and causes them to be displayed as a result of activitiessuch as scanning a paper document.

11.4. Web/network Interfaces

In today's increasingly networked world, much of the functionalityavailable on individual machines can also be accessed over a network,and the functionality associated with the described system is noexception. As an example, in an office environment, many paper documentsreceived by a user may have been printed by other users' machines on thesame corporate network. The system on one computer, in response to acapture, may be able to query those other machines for documents whichmay correspond to that capture, subject to the appropriate permissioncontrols.

11.5. Printing of Document Causes Saving

An important factor in the integration of paper and digital documents ismaintaining as much information as possible about the transitionsbetween the two. In some embodiments, the OS keeps a simple record ofwhen any document was printed and by whom. In some embodiments, the OStakes one or more further actions that would make it better suited foruse with the system. Examples include:

-   -   Saving the digital rendered version of every document printed        along with information about the source from which it was        printed    -   Saving a subset of useful information about the printed        version—for example, the fonts used and where the line breaks        occur—which might aid future scan interpretation    -   Saving the version of the source document associated with any        printed copy    -   Indexing the document automatically at the time of printing and        storing the results for future searching

11.6. My (Printed/Scanned) Documents

An OS often maintains certain categories of folders or files that haveparticular significance. A user's documents may, by convention ordesign, be found in a “My Documents” folder, for example. Standardfile-opening dialogs may automatically include a list of recently openeddocuments.

On an OS optimized for use with the described system, such categoriesmay be enhanced or augmented in ways that take into account a user'sinteraction with paper versions of the stored files. Categories such as“My Printed Documents” or “My Recently-Read Documents” might usefully beidentified and incorporated in its operations.

11.7. OS-level Markup Hierarchies

Since important aspects of the system are typically provided using the“markup” concepts discussed in Section 5, it would clearly beadvantageous to have support for such markup provided by the OS in a waythat was accessible to multiple applications as well as to the OSitself. In addition, layers of markup may be provided by the OS, basedon its own knowledge of documents under its control and the facilitiesit is able to provide.

11.8. Use of OS DRM Facilities

An increasing number of operating systems support some form of “DigitalRights Management”: the ability to control the use of particular dataaccording to the rights granted to a particular user, software entity ormachine. It may inhibit unauthorized copying or distribution of aparticular document, for example.

12. User Interface

The user interface of the system may be entirely on a PC, if the capturedevice is relatively dumb and is connected to it by a cable, or entirelyon the device, if it is sophisticated and with significant processingpower of its own. In some cases, some functionality resides in eachcomponent. Part, or indeed all, of the system's functionality may alsobe implemented on other devices such as mobile phones or PDAs.

The descriptions in the following sections are therefore indications ofwhat may be desirable in certain implementations, but they are notnecessarily appropriate for all and may be modified in several ways.

12.1. On the Capture Device

With all capture devices, but particularly in the case of an opticalscanner, the user's attention will generally be on the device and thepaper at the time of scanning. It is very desirable, then, that anyinput and feedback needed as part of the process of scanning do notrequire the user's attention to be elsewhere, for example on the screenof a computer, more than is necessary.

12.1.1. Feedback on Scanner

A handheld scanner may have a variety of ways of providing feedback tothe user about particular conditions. The most obvious types are directvisual, where the scanner incorporates indicator lights or even a fulldisplay, and auditory, where the scanner can make beeps, clicks or othersounds. Important alternatives include tactile feedback, where thescanner can vibrate, buzz, or otherwise stimulate the user's sense oftouch, and projected feedback, where it indicates a status by projectingonto the paper anything from a colored spot of light to a sophisticateddisplay.

Important immediate feedback that may be provided on the deviceincludes:

-   -   feedback on the scanning process—user scanning too fast, at too        great an angle, or drifting too high or low on a particular line    -   sufficient content—enough has been scanned to be pretty certain        of finding a match if one exists—important for disconnected        operation    -   context known—a source of the text has been located    -   unique context known—one unique source of the text has been        located    -   availability of content—indication of whether the content is        freely available to the user, or at a cost

Many of the user interactions normally associated with the later stagesof the system may also take place on the capture device if it hassufficient abilities, for example, to display part or all of a document.

12.1.2. Controls on Scanner

The device may provide a variety of ways for the user to provide inputin addition to basic text capture. Even when the device is in closeassociation with a host machine that has input options such as keyboardsand mice, it can be disruptive for the user to switch back and forthbetween manipulating the scanner and using a mouse, for example.

The handheld scanner may have buttons, scroll/jog-wheels,touch-sensitive surfaces, and/or accelerometers for detecting themovement of the device. Some of these allow a richer set of interactionswhile still holding the scanner.

For example, in response to scanning some text, the system presents theuser with a set of several possible matching documents. The user uses ascroll-wheel on the side of the scanner is to select one from the list,and clicks a button to confirm the selection.

12.1.3. Gestures

The primary reason for moving a scanner across the paper is to capturetext, but some movements may be detected by the device and used toindicate other user intentions. Such movements are referred to herein as“gestures.”

As an example, the user can indicate a large region of text by scanningthe first few words in conventional left-to-right order, and the lastfew in reverse order, i.e. right to left. The user can also indicate thevertical extent of the text of interest by moving the scanner down thepage over several lines. A backwards scan might indicate cancellation ofthe previous scan operation.

12.1.4. Online/Offline Behavior

Many aspects of the system may depend on network connectivity, eitherbetween components of the system such as a scanner and a host laptop, orwith the outside world in the form of a connection to corporatedatabases and Internet search. This connectivity may not be present allthe time, however, and so there will be occasions when part or all ofthe system may be considered to be “offline.” It is desirable to allowthe system to continue to function usefully in those circumstances.

The device may be used to capture text when it is out of contact withother parts of the system. A very simple device may simply be able tostore the image or audio data associated with the capture, ideally witha timestamp indicating when it was captured. The various captures may beuploaded to the rest of the system when the device is next in contactwith it, and handled then. The device may also upload other dataassociated with the captures, for example voice annotations associatedwith optical scans, or location information.

More sophisticated devices may be able to perform some or all of thesystem operations themselves despite being disconnected. Varioustechniques for improving their ability to do so are discussed in Section15.3. Often it will be the case that some, but not all, of the desiredactions can be performed while offline. For example, the text may berecognized, but identification of the source may depend on a connectionto an Internet-based search engine. In some embodiments, the devicetherefore stores sufficient information about how far each operation hasprogressed for the rest of the system to proceed efficiently whenconnectivity is restored.

The operation of the system will, in general, benefit from immediatelyavailable connectivity, but there are some situations in whichperforming several captures and then processing them as a batch can haveadvantages. For example, as discussed in Section 13 below, theidentification of the source of a particular capture may be greatlyenhanced by examining other captures made by the user at approximatelythe same time. In a fully connected system where live feedback is beingprovided to the user, the system is only able to use past captures whenprocessing the current one. If the capture is one of a batch stored bythe device when offline, however, the system will be able to take intoaccount any data available from later captures as well as earlier oneswhen doing its analysis.

12.2. On a Host Device

A scanner will often communicate with some other device, such as a PC,PDA, phone or digital camera to perform many of the functions of thesystem, including more detailed interactions with the user.

12.2.1. Activities Performed in Response to a Capture

When the host device receives a capture, it may initiate a variety ofactivities. An incomplete list of possible activities performed by thesystem after locating and electronic counterpart document associatedwith the capture and a location within that document follows.

-   -   The details of the capture may be stored in the user's history.        (Section 6.1)    -   The document may be retrieved from local storage or a remote        location. (Section 8)    -   The operating system's metadata and other records associated        with the document may be updated. (Section 11.1)    -   Markup associated with the document may be examined to determine        the next relevant operations. (Section 5)    -   A software application may be started to edit, view or otherwise        operate on the document. The choice of application may depend on        the source document, or on the contents of the scan, or on some        other aspect of the capture. (Section 11.2.2, 11.2.3)    -   The application may scroll to, highlight, move the insertion        point to, or otherwise indicate the location of the capture.        (Section 11.3)    -   The precise bounds of the captured text may be modified, for        example to select whole words, sentences or paragraphs around        the captured text. (Section 11.3.2)    -   The user may be given the option to copy the capture text to the        clipboard or perform other standard operating system or        application-specific operations upon it.    -   Annotations may be associated with the document or the captured        text. These may come from immediate user input, or may have been        captured earlier, for example in the case of voice annotations        associated with an optical scan. (Section 19.4)    -   Markup may be examined to determine a set of further possible        operations for the user to select.

12.2.2. Contextual Popup Menus

Sometimes the appropriate action to be taken by the system will beobvious, but sometimes it will require a choice to be made by the user.One good way to do this is through the use of “popup menus” or, in caseswhere the content is also being displayed on a screen, with so-called“contextual menus” that appear close to the content. (See Section11.3.3). In some embodiments, the scanner device projects a popup menuonto the paper document. A user may select from such menus usingtraditional methods such as a keyboard and mouse, or by using controlson the capture device (Section 12.1.2), gestures (Section 12.1.3), or byinteracting with the computer display using the scanner (Section12.2.4). In some embodiments, the popup menus which can appear as aresult of a capture include default items representing actions whichoccur if the user does not respond—for example, if the user ignores themenu and makes another capture.

12.2.3. Feedback on Disambiguation

When a user starts capturing text, there will initially be severaldocuments or other text locations that it could match. As more text iscaptured, and other factors are taken into account (Section 13), thenumber of candidate locations will decrease until the actual location isidentified, or further disambiguation is not possible without userinput. In some embodiments, the system provides a real-time display ofthe documents or the locations found, for example in list,thumbnail-image or text-segment form, and for the number of elements inthat display to reduce in number as capture continues. In someembodiments, the system displays thumbnails of all candidate documents,where the size or position of the thumbnail is dependent on theprobability of it being the correct match.

When a capture is unambiguously identified, this fact may be emphasizedto the user, for example using audio feedback.

Sometimes the text captured will occur in many documents and will berecognized to be a quotation. The system may indicate this on thescreen, for example by grouping documents containing a quoted referencearound the original source document.

12.2.4. Scanning from Screen

Some optical scanners may be able to capture text displayed on a screenas well as on paper. Accordingly, the term rendered document is usedherein to indicate that printing onto paper is not the only form ofrendering, and that the capture of text or symbols for use by the systemmay be equally valuable when that text is displayed on an electronicdisplay.

The user of the described system may be required to interact with acomputer screen for a variety of other reasons, such as to select from alist of options. It can be inconvenient for the user to put down thescanner and start using the mouse or keyboard. Other sections havedescribed physical controls on the scanner (Section 12.1.2) or gestures(Section 12.1.3) as methods of input which do not require this change oftool, but using the scanner on the screen itself to scan some text orsymbol is an important alternative provided by the system.

In some embodiments, the optics of the scanner allow it to be used in asimilar manner to a light-pen, directly sensing its position on thescreen without the need for actual scanning of text, possibly with theaid of special hardware or software on the computer.

13. Context Interpretation

An important aspect of the described system is the use of other factors,beyond the simple capture of a string of text, to help identify thedocument in use. A capture of a modest amount of text may often identifythe document uniquely, but in many situations it will identify a fewcandidate documents. One solution is to prompt the user to confirm thedocument being scanned, but a preferable alternative is to make use ofother factors to narrow down the possibilities automatically. Suchsupplemental information can dramatically reduce the amount of text thatneeds to be captured and/or increase the reliability and speed withwhich the location in the electronic counterpart can be identified. Thisextra material is referred to as “context,” and it was discussed brieflyin Section 4.2.2. We now consider it in more depth.

13.1. System and Capture Context

Perhaps the most important example of such information is the user'scapture history.

It is highly probable that any given capture comes from the samedocument as the previous one, or from an associated document, especiallyif the previous capture took place in the last few minutes (Section6.1.2). Conversely, if the system detects that the font has changedbetween two scans, it is more likely that they are from differentdocuments.

Also useful are the user's longer-term capture history and readinghabits. These can also be used to develop a model of the user'sinterests and associations.

13.2. User's Real-world Context

Another example of useful context is the user's geographical location. Auser in Paris is much more likely to be reading Le Monde than theSeattle Times, for example. The timing, size and geographicaldistribution of printed versions of the documents can therefore beimportant, and can to some degree be deduced from the operation of thesystem.

The time of day may also be relevant, for example in the case of a userwho always reads one type of publication on the way to work, and adifferent one at lunchtime or on the train going home.

13.3. Related Digital Context

The user's recent use of electronic documents, including those searchedfor or retrieved by more conventional means, can also be a helpfulindicator.

In some cases, such as on a corporate network, other factors may beusefully considered:

-   -   Which documents have been printed recently?    -   Which documents have been modified recently on the corporate        file server?    -   Which documents have been emailed recently?

All of these examples might suggest that a user was more likely to bereading a paper version of those documents. In contrast, if therepository in which a document resides can affirm that the document hasnever been printed or sent anywhere where it might have been printed,then it can be safely eliminated in any searches originating from paper.

13.4. Other Statistics—the Global Context

Section 14 covers the analysis of the data stream resulting frompaper-based searches, but it should be noted here that statistics aboutthe popularity of documents with other readers, about the timing of thatpopularity, and about the parts of documents most frequently scanned areall examples of further factors which can be beneficial in the searchprocess. The system brings the possibility of Google-type page-rankingto the world of paper.

See also Section 4.2.2 for some other implications of the use of contextfor search engines.

14. Data-stream Analysis

The use of the system generates an exceedingly valuable data-stream as aside effect. This stream is a record of what users are reading and when,and is in many cases a record of what they find particularly valuable inthe things they read. Such data has never really been available beforefor paper documents.

Some ways in which this data can be useful for the system, and for theuser of the system, are described in Section 6.1. This sectionconcentrates on its use for others. There are, of course, substantialprivacy issues to be considered with any distribution of data about whatpeople are reading, but such issues as preserving the anonymity of dataare well known to those of skill in the art.

14.1. Document Tracking

When the system knows which documents any given user is reading, it canalso deduce who is reading any given document. This allows the trackingof a document through an organization, to allow analysis, for example,of who is reading it and when, how widely it was distributed, how longthat distribution took, and who has seen current versions while othersare still working from out-of-date copies.

For published documents that have a wider distribution, the tracking ofindividual copies is more difficult, but the analysis of thedistribution of readership is still possible.

14.2. Read Ranking—Popularity of Documents and Sub-regions

In situations where users are capturing text or other data that is ofparticular interest to them, the system can deduce the popularity ofcertain documents and of particular sub-regions of those documents. Thisforms a valuable input to the system itself (Section 4.2.2) and animportant source of information for authors, publishers and advertisers(Section 7.6, Section 10.5). This data is also useful when integrated insearch engines and search indices—for example, to assist in rankingsearch results for queries coming from rendered documents, and/or toassist in ranking conventional queries typed into a web browser.

14.3. Analysis of Users—Building Profiles

Knowledge of what a user is reading enables the system to create a quitedetailed model of the user's interests and activities. This can beuseful on an abstract statistical basis—“35% of users who buy thisnewspaper also read the latest book by that author”—but it can alsoallow other interactions with the individual user, as discussed below.

14.3.1. Social Networking

One example is connecting one user with others who have relatedinterests. These may be people already known to the user. The system mayask a university professor, “Did you know that your colleague at XYZUniversity has also just read this paper?” The system may ask a user,“Do you want to be linked up with other people in your neighborhood whoare also how reading Jane Eyre?” Such links may be the basis for theautomatic formation of book clubs and similar social structures, eitherin the physical world or online.

14.3.2. Marketing

Section 10.6 has already mentioned the idea of offering products andservices to an individual user based on their interactions with thesystem. Current online booksellers, for example, often makerecommendations to a user based on their previous interactions with thebookseller. Such recommendations become much more useful when they arebased on interactions with the actual books.

14.4. Marketing Based on other Aspects of the Data-stream

We have discussed some of the ways in which the system may influencethose publishing documents, those advertising through them, and othersales initiated from paper (Section 10). Some commercial activities mayhave no direct interaction with the paper documents at all and yet maybe influenced by them. For example, the knowledge that people in onecommunity spend more time reading the sports section of the newspaperthan they do the financial section might be of interest to somebodysetting up a health club.

14.5. Types of Data that may be Captured

In addition to the statistics discussed, such as who is reading whichbits of which documents, and when and where, it can be of interest toexamine the actual contents of the text captured, regardless of whetheror not the document has been located.

In many situations, the user will also not just be capturing some text,but will be causing some action to occur as a result. It might beemailing a reference to the document to an acquaintance, for example.Even in the absence of information about the identity of the user or therecipient of the email, the knowledge that somebody considered thedocument worth emailing is very useful.

In addition to the various methods discussed for deducing the value of aparticular document or piece of text, in some circumstances the userwill explicitly indicate the value by assigning it a rating.

Lastly, when a particular set of users are known to form a group, forexample when they are known to be employees of a particular company, theaggregated statistics of that group can be used to deduce the importanceof a particular document to that group.

15. Device Features and Functions

A capture device for use with the system needs little more than a way ofcapturing text from a rendered version of the document. As describedearlier (Section 1.2), this capture may be achieved through a variety ofmethods including taking a photograph of part of the document or typingsome words into a mobile phone keypad. This capture may be achievedusing a small hand-held optical scanner capable of recording a line ortwo of text at a time, or an audio capture device such as avoice-recorder into which the user is reading text from the document.The device used may be a combination of these—an optical scanner whichcould also record voice annotations, for example—and the capturingfunctionality may be built into some other device such as a mobilephone, PDA, digital camera or portable music player.

15.1. Input and Output

Many of the possibly beneficial additional input and output facilitiesfor such a device have been described in Section 12.1. They includebuttons, scroll-wheels and touch-pads for input, and displays, indicatorlights, audio and tactile transducers for output. Sometimes the devicewill incorporate many of these, sometimes very few. Sometimes thecapture device will be able to communicate with another device thatalready has them (Section 15.6), for example using a wireless link, andsometimes the capture functionality will be incorporated into such otherdevice (Section 15.7).

15.2. Connectivity

In some embodiments, the device implements the majority of the systemitself. In some embodiments, however, it often communicates with a PC orother computing device and with the wider world using communicationsfacilities.

Often these communications facilities are in the form of ageneral-purpose data network such as Ethernet, 802.11 or UWB or astandard peripheral-connecting network such as USB, IEEE-1394(Firewire), Bluetooth™ or infra-red. When a wired connection such asFirewire or USB is used, the device may receive electrical power thoughthe same connection. In some circumstances, the capture device mayappear to a connected machine to be a conventional peripheral such as aUSB storage device.

Lastly, the device may in some circumstances “dock” with another device,either to be used in conjunction with that device or for convenientstorage.

15.3. Caching and Other Online/offline Functionality

Sections 3.5 and 12.1.4 have raised the topic of disconnected operation.When a capture device has a limited subset of the total system'sfunctionality, and is not in communication with the other parts of thesystem, the device can still be useful, though the functionalityavailable will sometimes be reduced. At the simplest level, the devicecan record the raw image or audio data being captured and this can beprocessed later. For the user's benefit, however, it can be important togive feedback where possible about whether the data captured is likelyto be sufficient for the task in hand, whether it can be recognized oris likely to be recognizable, and whether the source of the data can beidentified or is likely to be identifiable later. The user will thenknow whether their capturing activity is worthwhile. Even when all ofthe above are unknown, the raw data can still be stored so that, at thevery least, the user can refer to them later. The user may be presentedwith the image of a scan, for example, when the scan cannot berecognized by the OCR process.

To illustrate some of the range of options available, both a ratherminimal optical scanning device and then a much more full-featured oneare described below. Many devices occupy a middle ground between thetwo.

15.3.1. The SimpleScanner—a Low-end Offline Example

The SimpleScanner has a scanning head able to read pixels from the pageas it is moved along the length of a line of text. It can detect itsmovement along the page and record the pixels with some informationabout the movement. It also has a clock, which allows each scan to betime-stamped. The clock is synchronized with a host device when theSimpleScanner has connectivity. The clock may not represent the actualtime of day, but relative times may be determined from it so that thehost can deduce the actual time of a scan, or at worst the elapsed timebetween scans.

The SimpleScanner does not have sufficient processing power to performany OCR itself, but it does have some basic knowledge about typicalword-lengths, word-spacings, and their relationship to font size. It hassome basic indicator lights which tell the user whether the scan islikely to be readable, whether the head is being moved too fast, tooslowly or too inaccurately across the paper, and when it determines thatsufficient words of a given size are likely to have been scanned for thedocument to be identified.

The SimpleScanner has a USB connector and can be plugged into the USBport on a computer, where it will be recharged. To the computer itappears to be a USB storage device on which time-stamped data files havebeen recorded, and the rest of the system software takes over from thispoint.

15.3.2. The SuperScanner—a High-end Offline Example

The SuperScanner also depends on connectivity for its full operation,but it has a significant amount of on-board storage and processing whichcan help it make better judgments about the data captured while offline.

As it moves along the line of text, the captured pixels are stitchedtogether and passed to an OCR engine that attempts to recognize thetext. A number of fonts, including those from the user's most-readpublications, have been downloaded to it to help perform this task, ashas a dictionary that is synchronized with the user's spelling-checkerdictionary on their PC and so contains many of the words they frequentlyencounter. Also stored on the scanner is a list of words and phraseswith the typical frequency of their use—this may be combined with thedictionary. The scanner can use the frequency statistics both to helpwith the recognition process and also to inform its judgment about whena sufficient quantity of text has been captured; more frequently usedphrases are less likely to be useful as the basis for a search query.

In addition, the full index for the articles in the recent issues of thenewspapers and periodicals most commonly read by the user are stored onthe device, as are the indices for the books the user has recentlypurchased from an online bookseller, or from which the user has scannedanything within the last few months. Lastly, the titles of severalthousand of the most popular publications which have data available forthe system are stored so that, in the absence of other information theuser can scan the title and have a good idea as to whether or notcaptures from a particular work are likely to be retrievable inelectronic form later.

During the scanning process, the system informs user that the captureddata has been of sufficient quality and of a sufficient nature to makeit probable that the electronic copy can be retrieved when connectivityis restored. Often the system indicates to the user that the scan isknown to have been successful and that the context has been recognizedin one of the on-board indices, or that the publication concerned isknown to be making its data available to the system, so the laterretrieval ought to be successful.

The SuperScanner docks in a cradle connected to a PC's Firewire or USBport, at which point, in addition to the upload of captured data, itsvarious onboard indices and other databases are updated based on recentuser activity and new publications. It also has the facility to connectto wireless public networks or to communicate via Bluetooth to a mobilephone and thence with the public network when such facilities areavailable.

15.4. Features for Optical Scanning

We now consider some of the features that may be particularly desirablein an optical scanner device.

15.4.1. Flexible Positioning and Convenient Optics

One of the reasons for the continuing popularity of paper is the ease ofits use in a wide variety of situations where a computer, for example,would be impractical or inconvenient. A device intended to capture asubstantial part of a user's interaction with paper should therefore besimilarly convenient in use. This has not been the case for scanners inthe past; even the smallest hand-held devices have been somewhatunwieldy. Those designed to be in contact with the page have to be heldat a precise angle to the paper and moved very carefully along thelength of the text to be scanned. This is acceptable when scanning abusiness report on an office desk, but may be impractical when scanninga phrase from a novel while waiting for a train. Scanners based oncamera-type optics that operate at a distance from the paper maysimilarly be useful in some circumstances.

Some embodiments of the system use a scanner that scans in contact withthe paper, and which, instead of lenses, uses an image conduit a bundleof optical fibers to transmit the image from the page to the opticalsensor device. Such a device can be shaped to allow it to be held in anatural position; for example, in some embodiments, the part in contactwith the page is wedge-shaped, allowing the user's hand to move morenaturally over the page in a movement similar to the use of ahighlighter pen. The conduit is either in direct contact with the paperor in close proximity to it, and may have a replaceable transparent tipthat can protect the image conduit from possible damage. As has beenmentioned in Section 12.2.4, the scanner may be used to scan from ascreen as well as from paper, and the material of the tip can be chosento reduce the likelihood of damage to such displays.

Lastly, some embodiments of the device will provide feedback to the userduring the scanning process which will indicate through the use oflight, sound or tactile feedback when the user is scanning too fast, tooslow, too unevenly or is drifting too high or low on the scanned line.

15.5. Security, Identity, Authentication, Personalization and Billing

As described in Section 6, the capture device may form an important partof identification and authorization for secure transactions, purchases,and a variety of other operations. It may therefore incorporate, inaddition to the circuitry and software required for such a role, varioushardware features that can make it more secure, such as a smartcardreader, RFID, or a keypad on which to type a PIN.

It may also include various biometric sensors to help identify the user.In the case of an optical scanner, for example, the scanning head mayalso be able to read a fingerprint. For a voice recorder, the voicepattern of the user may be used.

15.6. Device Associations

In some embodiments, the device is able to form an association withother nearby devices to increase either its own or their functionality.In some embodiments, for example, it uses the display of a nearby PC orphone to give more detailed feedback about its operation, or uses theirnetwork connectivity. The device may, on the other hand, operate in itsrole as a security and identification device to authenticate operationsperformed by the other device. Or it may simply form an association inorder to function as a peripheral to that device.

An interesting aspect of such associations is that they may be initiatedand authenticated using the capture facilities of the device. Forexample, a user wishing to identify themselves securely to a publiccomputer terminal may use the scanning facilities of the device to scana code or symbol displayed on a particular area of the terminal's screenand so effect a key transfer. An analogous process may be performedusing audio signals picked up by a voice-recording device.

15.7. Integration with Other Devices

In some embodiments, the functionality of the capture device isintegrated into some other device that is already in use. The integrateddevices may be able to share a power supply, data capture and storagecapabilities, and network interfaces. Such integration may be donesimply for convenience, to reduce cost, or to enable functionality thatwould not otherwise be available.

Some examples of devices into which the capture functionality can beintegrated include:

-   -   an existing peripheral such as a mouse, a stylus, a USB “webcam”        camera, a Bluetooth™ headset or a remote control    -   another processing/storage device, such as a PDA, an MP3 player,        a voice recorder, a digital camera or a mobile phone    -   other often-carried items, just for convenience—a watch, a piece        of jewelry, a pen, a car key fob

15.7.1. Mobile Phone Integration

As an example of the benefits of integration, we consider the use of amodified mobile phone as the capture device.

In some embodiments, the phone hardware is not modified to support thesystem, such as where the text capture can be adequately done throughvoice recognition, where they can either be processed by the phoneitself, or handled by a system at the other end of a telephone call, orstored in the phone's memory for future processing. Many modern phoneshave the ability to download software that could implement some parts ofthe system. Such voice capture is likely to be suboptimal in manysituations, however, for example when there is substantial backgroundnoise, and accurate voice recognition is a difficult task at the best oftimes. The audio facilities may best be used to capture voiceannotations.

In some embodiments, the camera built into many mobile phones is used tocapture an image of the text. The phone display, which would normallyact as a viewfinder for the camera, may overlay on the live camera imageinformation about the quality of the image and its suitability for OCR,which segments of text are being captured, and even a transcription ofthe text if the OCR can be performed on the phone.

In some embodiments, the phone is modified to add dedicated capturefacilities, or to provide such functionality in a clip-on adaptor or aseparate Bluetooth-connected peripheral in communication with the phone.Whatever the nature of the capture mechanism, the integration with amodern cellphone has many other advantages. The phone has connectivitywith the wider world, which means that queries can be submitted toremote search engines or other parts of the system, and copies ofdocuments may be retrieved for immediate storage or viewing. A phonetypically has sufficient processing power for many of the functions ofthe system to be performed locally, and sufficient storage to capture areasonable amount of data. The amount of storage can also often beexpanded by the user. Phones have reasonably good displays and audiofacilities to provide user feedback, and often a vibrate function fortactile feedback. They also have good power supplies.

Most significantly of all, they are a device that most users are alreadycarrying.

Part III—Example Applications of the System

This section lists example uses of the system and applications that maybe built on it. This list is intended to be purely illustrative and inno sense exhaustive.

16. Personal Applications

16.1. Life Library

The Life Library (see also Section 6.1.1) is a digital archive of anyimportant documents that the subscriber wishes to save and is a set ofembodiments of services of this system. Important books, magazinearticles, newspaper clippings, etc., can all be saved in digital form inthe Life Library. Additionally, the subscriber's annotations, comments,and notes can be saved with the documents. The Life Library can beaccessed via the Internet and World Wide Web.

The system creates and manages the Life Library document archive forsubscribers. The subscriber indicates which documents the subscriberwishes to have saved in his life library by scanning information fromthe document or by otherwise indicating to the system that theparticular document is to be added to the subscriber's Life Library. Thescanned information is typically text from the document but can also bea barcode or other code identifying the document. The system accepts thecode and uses it to identify the source document. After the document isidentified the system can store either a copy of the document in theuser's Life Library or a link to a source where the document may beobtained.

One embodiment of the Life Library system can check whether thesubscriber is authorized to obtain the electronic copy. For example, ifa reader scans text or an identifier from a copy of an article in theNew York Times (NYT) so that the article will be added to the reader'sLife Library, the Life Library system will verify with the NYT whetherthe reader is subscribed to the online version of the NYT; if so, thereader gets a copy of the article stored in his Life Library account; ifnot, information identifying the document and how to order it is storedin his Life Library account.

In some embodiments, the system maintains a subscriber profile for eachsubscriber that includes access privilege information. Document accessinformation can be compiled in several ways, two of which are: 1) thesubscriber supplies the document access information to the Life Librarysystem, along with his account names and passwords, etc., or 2) the LifeLibrary service provider queries the publisher with the subscriber'sinformation and the publisher responds by providing access to anelectronic copy if the Life Library subscriber is authorized to accessthe material. If the Life Library subscriber is not authorized to havean electronic copy of the document, the publisher provides a price tothe Life Library service provider, which then provides the customer withthe option to purchase the electronic document. If so, the Life Libraryservice provider either pays the publisher directly and bills the LifeLibrary customer later or the Life Library service provider immediatelybills the customer's credit card for the purchase. The Life Libraryservice provider would get a percentage of the purchase price or a smallfixed fee for facilitating the transaction.

The system can archive the document in the subscriber's personal libraryand/or any other library to which the subscriber has archivalprivileges. For example, as a user scans text from a printed document,the Life Library system can identify the rendered document and itselectronic counterpart. After the source document is identified, theLife Library system might record information about the source documentin the user's personal library and in a group library to which thesubscriber has archival privileges. Group libraries are collaborativearchives such as a document repository for: a group working together ona project, a group of academic researchers, a group web log, etc.

The life library can be organized in many ways: chronologically, bytopic, by level of the subscriber's interest, by type of publication(newspaper, book, magazine, technical paper, etc.), where read, whenread, by ISBN or by Dewey decimal, etc. In one alternative, the systemcan learn classifications based on how other subscribers have classifiedthe same document. The system can suggest classifications to the user orautomatically classify the document for the user.

In various embodiments, annotations may be inserted directly into thedocument or may be maintained in a separate file. For example, when asubscriber scans text from a newspaper article, the article is archivedin his Life Library with the scanned text highlighted. Alternatively,the article is archived in his Life Library along with an associatedannotation file (thus leaving the archived document unmodified).Embodiments of the system can keep a copy of the source document in eachsubscriber's library, a copy in a master library that many subscriberscan access, or link to a copy held by the publisher.

In some embodiments, the Life Library stores only the user'smodifications to the document (e.g., highlights, etc.) and a link to anonline version of the document (stored elsewhere). The system or thesubscriber merges the changes with the document when the subscribersubsequently retrieves the document.

If the annotations are kept in a separate file, the source document andthe annotation file are provided to the subscriber and the subscribercombines them to create a modified document. Alternatively, the systemcombines the two files prior to presenting them to the subscriber. Inanother alternative, the annotation file is an overlay to the documentfile and can be overlaid on the document by software in the subscriber'scomputer.

Subscribers to the Life Library service pay a monthly fee to have thesystem maintain the subscriber's archive. Alternatively, the subscriberpays a small amount (e.g., a micro-payment) for each document stored inthe archive. Alternatively, the subscriber pays to access thesubscriber's archive on a per-access fee. Alternatively, subscribers cancompile libraries and allow others to access the materials/annotationson a revenue share model with the Life Library service provider andcopyright holders. Alternatively, the Life Library service providerreceives a payment from the publisher when the Life Library subscriberorders a document (a revenue share model with the publisher, where theLife Library service provider gets a share of the publisher's revenue).

In some embodiments, the Life Library service provider acts as anintermediary between the subscriber and the copyright holder (orcopyright holder's agent, such as the Copyright Clearance Center, a.k.a.CCC) to facilitate billing and payment for copyrighted materials. TheLife Library service provider uses the subscriber's billing informationand other user account information to provide this intermediationservice. Essentially, the Life Library service provider leverages thepre-existing relationship with the subscriber to enable purchase ofcopyrighted materials on behalf of the subscriber.

In some embodiments, the Life Library system can store excerpts fromdocuments. For example, when a subscriber scans text from a paperdocument, the regions around the scanned text are excerpted and placedin the Life Library, rather than the entire document being archived inthe life library. This is especially advantageous when the document islong because preserving the circumstances of the original scan preventsthe subscriber from re-reading the document to find the interestingportions. Of course, a hyperlink to the entire electronic counterpart ofthe paper document can be included with the excerpt materials.

In some embodiments, the system also stores information about thedocument in the Life Library, such as author, publication title,publication date, publisher, copyright holder (or copyright holder'slicensing agent), ISBN, links to public annotations of the document,readrank, etc. Some of this additional information about the document isa form of paper document metadata. Third parties may create publicannotation files for access by persons other than themselves, such thegeneral public. Linking to a third party's commentary on a document isadvantageous because reading annotation files of other users enhancesthe subscriber's understanding of the document.

In some embodiments, the system archives materials by class. Thisfeature allows a Life Library subscriber to quickly store electroniccounterparts to an entire class of paper documents without access toeach paper document. For example, when the subscriber scans some textfrom a copy of National Geographic magazine, the system provides thesubscriber with the option to archive all back issues of the NationalGeographic. If the subscriber elects to archive all back issues, theLife Library service provider would then verify with the NationalGeographic Society whether the subscriber is authorized to do so. Ifnot, the Life Library service provider can mediate the purchase of theright to archive the National Geographic magazine collection.

16.2. Life Saver

A variation on, or enhancement of, the Life Library concept is the “LifeSaver,” where the system uses the text captured by a user to deduce moreabout their other activities. The scanning of a menu from a particularrestaurant, a program from a particular theater performance, a timetableat a particular railway station, or an article from a local newspaperallows the system to make deductions about the user's location andsocial activities, and could construct an automatic diary for them, forexample as a website. The user would be able to edit and modify thediary, add additional materials such as photographs and, of course, lookagain at the items scanned.

17. Academic Applications

Portable scanners supported by the described system have many compellinguses in the academic setting. They can enhance student/teacherinteraction and augment the learning experience. Among other uses,students can annotate study materials to suit their unique needs;teachers can monitor classroom performance; and teachers canautomatically verify source materials cited in student assignments.

17.1. Children's Books

A child's interaction with a paper document, such as a book, ismonitored by a literacy acquisition system that employs a specific setof embodiments of this system. The child uses a portable scanner thatcommunicates with other elements of the literacy acquisition system. Inaddition to the portable scanner, the literacy acquisition systemincludes a computer having a display and speakers, and a databaseaccessible by the computer. The scanner is coupled with the computer(hardwired, short range RF, etc.). When the child sees an unknown wordin the book, the child scans it with the scanner. In one embodiment, theliteracy acquisition system compares the scanned text with the resourcesin its database to identify the word. The database includes adictionary, thesaurus, and/or multimedia files (e.g., sound, graphics,etc.). After the word has been identified, the system uses the computerspeakers to pronounce the word and its definition to the child. Inanother embodiment, the word and its definition are displayed by theliteracy acquisition system on the computer's monitor. Multimedia filesabout the scanned word can also be played through the computer's monitorand speakers. For example, if a child reading “Goldilocks and the ThreeBears” scanned the word “bear,” the system might pronounce the word“bear” and play a short video about bears on the computer's monitor. Inthis way, the child learns to pronounce the written word and is visuallytaught what the word means via the multimedia presentation.

The literacy acquisition system provides immediate auditory and/orvisual information to enhance the learning process. The child uses thissupplementary information to quickly acquire a deeper understanding ofthe written material. The system can be used to teach beginning readersto read, to help children acquire a larger vocabulary, etc. This systemprovides the child with information about words with which the child isunfamiliar or about which the child wants more information.

17.2. Literacy Acquisition

In some embodiments, the system compiles personal dictionaries. If thereader sees a word that is new, interesting, or particularly useful ortroublesome, the reader saves it (along with its definition) to acomputer file. This computer file becomes the reader's personalizeddictionary. This dictionary is generally smaller in size than a generaldictionary so can be downloaded to a mobile station or associated deviceand thus be available even when the system isn't immediately accessible.In some embodiments, the personal dictionary entries include audio filesto assist with proper word pronunciation and information identifying thepaper document from which the word was scanned.

In some embodiments, the system creates customized spelling andvocabulary tests for students. For example, as a student reads anassignment, the student may scan unfamiliar words with the portablescanner. The system stores a list of all the words that the student hasscanned. Later, the system administers a customized spelling/vocabularytest to the student on an associated monitor (or prints such a test onan associated printer).

17.3. Music Teaching

The arrangement of notes on a musical staff is similar to thearrangement of letters in a line of text. The same scanning devicediscussed for capturing text in this system can be used to capture musicnotation, and an analogous process of constructing a search againstdatabases of known musical pieces would allow the piece from which thecapture occurred to be identified which can then be retrieved, played,or be the basis for some further action.

17.4. Detecting Plagiarism

Teachers can use the system to detect plagiarism or to verify sources byscanning text from student papers and submitting the scanned text to thesystem. For example, a teacher who wishes to verify that a quote in astudent paper came from the source that the student cited can scan aportion of the quote and compare the title of the document identified bythe system with the title of the document cited by the student.Likewise, the system can use scans of text from assignments submitted asthe student's original work to reveal if the text was instead copied.

17.5. Enhanced Textbook

In some embodiments, capturing text from an academic textbook linksstudents or staff to more detailed explanations, further exercises,student and staff discussions about the material, related example pastexam questions, further reading on the subject, recordings of thelectures on the subject, and so forth. (See also Section 7.1.)

17.6. Language Learning

In some embodiments, the system is used to teach foreign languages.Scanning a Spanish word, for example, might cause the word to be readaloud in Spanish along with its definition in English.

The system provides immediate auditory and/or visual information toenhance the new language acquisition process. The reader uses thissupplementary information to acquire quickly a deeper understanding ofthe material. The system can be used to teach beginning students to readforeign languages, to help students acquire a larger vocabulary, etc.The system provides information about foreign words with which thereader is unfamiliar or for which the reader wants more information.

Reader interaction with a paper document, such as a newspaper or book,is monitored by a language skills system. The reader has a portablescanner that communicates with the language skills system. In someembodiments, the language skills system includes a computer having adisplay and speakers, and a database accessible by the computer. Thescanner communicates with the computer (hardwired, short range RF,etc.). When the reader sees an unknown word in an article, the readerscans it with the scanner. The database includes a foreign languagedictionary, thesaurus, and/or multimedia files (sound, graphics, etc.).In one embodiment, the system compares the scanned text with theresources in its database to identify the scanned word. After the wordhas been identified, the system uses the computer speakers to pronouncethe word and its definition to the reader. In some embodiments, the wordand its definition are both displayed on the computer's monitor.Multimedia files about grammar tips related to the scanned word can alsobe played through the computer's monitor and speakers. For example, ifthe words “to speak” are scanned, the system might pronounce the word“hablar,” play a short audio clip that demonstrates the proper Spanishpronunciation, and display a complete list of the various conjugationsof “hablar.” In this way, the student learns to pronounce the writtenword, is visually taught the spelling of the word via the multimediapresentation, and learns how to conjugate the verb. The system can alsopresent grammar tips about the proper usage of “hablar” along withcommon phrases.

In some embodiments, the user scans a word or short phrase from arendered document in a language other than the user's native language(or some other language that the user knows reasonably well). In someembodiments, the system maintains a prioritized list of the user's“preferred” languages. The system identifies the electronic counterpartof the rendered document, and determines the location of the scan withinthe document. The system also identifies a second electronic counterpartof the document that has been translated into one of the user'spreferred languages, and determines the location in the translateddocument corresponding to the location of the scan in the originaldocument. When the corresponding location is not known precisely, thesystem identifies a small region (e.g., a paragraph) that includes thecorresponding location of the scanned location. The correspondingtranslated location is then presented to the user. This provides theuser with a precise translation of the particular usage at the scannedlocation, including any slang or other idiomatic usage that is oftendifficult to accurately translate on a word-by-word basis.

17.7. Gathering Research Materials

A user researching a particular topic may encounter all sorts ofmaterial, both in print and on screen, which they might wish to recordas relevant to the topic in some personal archive. The system wouldenable this process to be automatic as a result of scanning a shortphrase in any piece of material, and could also create a bibliographysuitable for insertion into a publication on the subject.

18. Commercial Applications

Obviously, commercial activities could be made out of almost any processdiscussed in this document, but here we concentrate on a few obviousrevenue streams.

18.1. Fee-based Searching and Indexing

Conventional Internet search engines typically provide free search ofelectronic documents, and also make no charge to the content providersfor including their content in the index. In some embodiments, thesystem provides for charges to users and/or payments to search enginesand/or content providers in connection with the operation and use of thesystem.

In some embodiments, subscribers to the system's services pay a fee forsearches originating from scans of paper documents. For example, astockbroker may be reading a Wall Street Journal article about a newproduct offered by Company X. By scanning the Company X name from thepaper document and agreeing to pay the necessary fees, the stockbrokeruses the system to search special or proprietary databases to obtainpremium information about the company, such as analyst's reports. Thesystem can also make arrangements to have priority indexing of thedocuments most likely to be read in paper form, for example by makingsure all of the newspapers published on a particular day are indexed andavailable by the time they hit the streets.

Content providers may pay a fee to be associated with certain terms insearch queries submitted from paper documents. For example, in oneembodiment, the system chooses a most preferred content provider basedon additional context about the provider (the context being, in thiscase, that the content provider has paid a fee to be moved up theresults list). In essence, the search provider is adjusting paperdocument search results based on pre-existing financial arrangementswith a content provider. See also the description of keywords and keyphrases in Section 5.2.

Where access to particular content is to be restricted to certain groupsof people (such as clients or employees), such content may be protectedby a firewall and thus not generally indexable by third parties. Thecontent provider may nonetheless wish to provide an index to theprotected content. In such a case, the content provider can pay aservice provider to provide the content provider's index to systemsubscribers. For example, a law firm may index all of a client'sdocuments. The documents are stored behind the law firm's firewall.However, the law firm wants its employees and the client to have accessto the documents through the portable scanner so it provides the index(or a pointer to the index) to the service provider, which in turnsearches the law firm's index when employees or clients of the law firmsubmit paper-scanned search terms via their portable scanners. The lawfirm can provide a list of employees and/or clients to the serviceprovider's system to enable this function or the system can verifyaccess rights by querying the law firm prior to searching the law firm'sindex. Note that in the preceding example, the index provided by the lawfirm is only of that client's documents, not an index of all documentsat the law firm. Thus, the service provider can only grant the lawfirm's clients access to the documents that the law firm indexed for theclient.

There are at least two separate revenue streams that can result fromsearches originating from paper documents: one revenue stream from thesearch function, and another from the content delivery function. Thesearch function revenue can be generated from paid subscriptions fromthe scanner users, but can also be generated on a per-search charge. Thecontent delivery revenue can be shared with the content provider orcopyright holder (the service provider can take a percentage of the saleor a fixed fee, such as a micropayment, for each delivery), but also canbe generated by a “referral” model in which the system gets a fee orpercentage for every item that the subscriber orders from the onlinecatalog and that the system has delivered or contributed to, regardlessof whether the service provider intermediates the transaction. In someembodiments, the system service provider receives revenue for allpurchases that the subscriber made from the content provider, either forsome predetermined period of time or at any subsequent time when apurchase of an identified product is made.

18.2. Catalogs

Consumers may use the portable scanner to make purchases from papercatalogs. The subscriber scans information from the catalog thatidentifies the catalog. This information is text from the catalog, a barcode, or another identifier of the catalog. The subscriber scansinformation identifying the products that s/he wishes to purchase. Thecatalog mailing label may contain a customer identification number thatidentifies the customer to the catalog vendor. If so, the subscriber canalso scan this customer identification number. The system acts as anintermediary between the subscriber and the vendor to facilitate thecatalog purchase by providing the customer's selection and customeridentification number to the vendor.

18.3. Coupons

A consumer scans paper coupons and saves an electronic copy of thecoupon in the scanner, or in a remote device such as a computer, forlater retrieval and use. An advantage of electronic storage is that theconsumer is freed from the burden of carrying paper coupons. A furtheradvantage is that the electronic coupons may be retrieved from anylocation. In some embodiments, the system can track coupon expirationdates, alert the consumer about coupons that will expire soon, and/ordelete expired coupons from storage. An advantage for the issuer of thecoupons is the possibility of receiving more feedback about who is usingthe coupons and when and where they are captured and used.

19. General Applications

19.1. Forms

The system may be used to auto-populate an electronic document thatcorresponds to a paper form. A user scans in some text or a barcode thatuniquely identifies the paper form. The scanner communicates theidentity of the form and information identifying the user to a nearbycomputer. The nearby computer has an Internet connection. The nearbycomputer can access a first database of forms and a second databasehaving information about the user of the scanner (such as a serviceprovider's subscriber information database). The nearby computeraccesses an electronic version of the paper form from the first databaseand auto-populates the fields of the form from the user's informationobtained from the second database. The nearby computer then emails thecompleted form to the intended recipient. Alternatively, the computercould print the completed form on a nearby printer.

Rather than access an external database, in some embodiments, the systemhas a portable scanner that contains the user's information, such as inan identity module, SIM, or security card. The scanner providesinformation identifying the form to the nearby PC. The nearby PCaccesses the electronic form and queries the scanner for any necessaryinformation to fill out the form.

19.2. Business Cards

The system can be used to automatically populate electronic addressbooks or other contact lists from paper documents. For example, uponreceiving a new acquaintance's business card, a user can capture animage of the card with his/her cellular phone. The system will locate anelectronic copy of the card, which can be used to update the cellularphone's onboard address book with the new acquaintance's contactinformation. The electronic copy may contain more information about thenew acquaintance than can be squeezed onto a business card. Further, theonboard address book may also store a link to the electronic copy suchthat any changes to the electronic copy will be automatically updated inthe cell phone's address book. In this example, the business cardoptionally includes a symbol or text that indicates the existence of anelectronic copy. If no electronic copy exists, the cellular phone canuse OCR and knowledge of standard business card formats to fill out anentry in the address book for the new acquaintance. Symbols may also aidin the process of extracting information directly from the image. Forexample, a phone icon next to the phone number on the business card canbe recognized to determine the location of the phone number.

19.3. Proofreading/Editing

The system can enhance the proofreading and editing process. One way thesystem can enhance the editing process is by linking the editor'sinteractions with a paper document to its electronic counterpart. As aneditor reads a paper document and scans various parts of the document,the system will make the appropriate annotations or edits to anelectronic counterpart of the paper document. For example, if the editorscans a portion of text and makes the “new paragraph” control gesturewith the scanner, a computer in communication with the scanner wouldinsert a “new paragraph” break at the location of the scanned text inthe electronic copy of the document.

19.4. Voice Annotation

A user can make voice annotations to a document by scanning a portion oftext from the document and then making a voice recording that isassociated with the scanned text. In some embodiments, the scanner has amicrophone to record the user's verbal annotations. After the verbalannotations are recorded, the system identifies the document from whichthe text was scanned, locates the scanned text within the document, andattaches the voice annotation at that point. In some embodiments, thesystem converts the speech to text and attaches the annotation as atextual comment.

In some embodiments, the system keeps annotations separate from thedocument, with only a reference to the annotation kept with thedocument. The annotations then become an annotation markup layer to thedocument for a specific subscriber or group of users.

In some embodiments, for each capture and associated annotation, thesystem identifies the document, opens it using a software package,scrolls to the location of the scan and plays the voice annotation. Theuser can then interact with a document while referring to voiceannotations, suggested changes or other comments recorded either bythemselves or by somebody else.

19.5. Help in Text

The described system can be used to enhance paper documents withelectronic help menus. In some embodiments, a markup layer associatedwith a paper document contains help menu information for the document.For example, when a user scans text from a certain portion of thedocument, the system checks the markup associated with the document andpresents a help menu to the user. The help menu is presented on adisplay on the scanner or on an associated nearby display.

19.6. Use with Displays

In some situations, it is advantageous to be able to scan informationfrom a television, computer monitor, or other similar display. In someembodiments, the portable scanner is used to scan information fromcomputer monitors and televisions. In some embodiments, the portableoptical scanner has an illumination sensor that is optimized to workwith traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) display techniques such asrasterizing, screen blanking, etc.

A voice capture device which operates by capturing audio of the userreading text from a document will typically work regardless of whetherthat document is on paper, on a display, or on some other medium.

19.6.1. Public Kiosks and Dynamic Session IDs

One use of the direct scanning of displays is the association of devicesas described in Section 15.6. For example, in some embodiments, a publickiosk displays a dynamic session ID on its monitor. The kiosk isconnected to a communication network such as the Internet or a corporateintranet. The session ID changes periodically but at least every timethat the kiosk is used so that a new session ID is displayed to everyuser. To use the kiosk, the subscriber scans in the session ID displayedon the kiosk; by scanning the session ID, the user tells the system thathe wishes to temporarily associate the kiosk with his scanner for thedelivery of content resulting from scans of printed documents or fromthe kiosk screen itself. The scanner may communicate the Session ID andother information authenticating the scanner (such as a serial number,account number, or other identifying information) directly to thesystem. For example, the scanner can communicate directly (where“directly” means without passing the message through the kiosk) with thesystem by sending the session initiation message through the user's cellphone (which is paired with the user's scanner via Bluetooth™).Alternatively, the scanner can establish a wireless link with the kioskand use the kiosk's communication link by transferring the sessioninitiation information to the kiosk (perhaps via short range RF such asBluetooth™, etc.); in response, the kiosk sends the session initiationinformation to the system via its Internet connection.

The system can prevent others from using a device that is alreadyassociated with a scanner during the period (or session) in which thedevice is associated with the scanner. This feature is useful to preventothers from using a public kiosk before another person's session hasended. As an example of this concept related to use of a computer at anInternet café, the user scans a barcode on a monitor of a PC which s/hedesires to use; in response, the system sends a session ID to themonitor that it displays; the user initiates the session by scanning thesession ID from the monitor (or entering it via a keypad or touch screenor microphone on the portable scanner); and the system associates in itsdatabases the session ID with the serial number (or other identifierthat uniquely identifies the user's scanner) of his/her scanner soanother scanner cannot scan the session ID and use the monitor duringhis/her session. The scanner is in communication (through wireless linksuch as Bluetooth™, a hardwired link such as a docking station, etc.)with a PC associated with the monitor or is in direct (i.e., w/o goingthrough the PC) communication with the system via another means such asa cellular phone, etc.

Part IV—System Details

In this description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings thatform a part hereof wherein like numerals designate like partsthroughout, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specificembodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural orlogical changes may be made without departing from the scope of thepresent invention. Therefore, the following detailed description is notto be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present inventionis defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Various embodiments include a user-friendly technique for filling forms(such as forms on paper, in catalogs, displayed on web pages, otherdynamic displays, in advertisements, in books, in magazines, on signsand the like) using a graphical capture device (such as a scanner,digital camera, or other device capable of capturing at least a portionof the rendered form) or other devices. Embodiments may be practiced toengage in many forms of information gathering utilizing a device tointerface with human and machine-readable materials.

In this description, various aspects of selected embodiments aredescribed. However, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill inthe art and others that alternate embodiments may be practiced with onlysome or all of the aspects. For purposes of explanation, specificnumbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and others that alternateembodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In otherinstances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not toobscure the illustrated embodiments.

Various operations may be described herein as multiple discreet steps inturn, in a manner that is helpful to understanding of the embodiments.However, the order of description should not be construed to imply thatthese operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, theseoperations may not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrase “in one embodiment” is used repeatedly. The phrase generallydoes not refer to the same embodiment, however, it may. The terms“comprising,” “having” and “including” are synonymous, unless thecontext dictates otherwise.

Referring now to FIG. 4, wherein an overview of an alternate exemplaryoperating environment in accordance with one embodiment, is shown. Theoperating environment may also be considered and/or referred to as asystem or a cluster of systems. As illustrated, example operatingenvironment 400 includes a scanning device 500 (operative to graphicallycapture a portion of form 495), computer 212, mobile phone or PDA 216,form registry 600, user account services 236 document sources 234,recipient device 450, Interactive Voice Response (“IVR”) server 460(couple to a telephone 465), all interconnected via a network such asthe Internet 410 or Wireless network 430. In alternate embodiments,operating environment 400 may include more or less components. Thedevices of operating environment 400 may comprise a number ofcomponents.

FIG. 5 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a scanning device 302,500, which is described below. Similarly, FIG. 6 illustrates oneexemplary embodiment of a form registry 600, which is described below.FIGS. 7-14 illustrate exemplary communication protocols and processes,for operating environment 400.

In various embodiments, the scanning device 302, 500, computer 212,mobile phone or PDA 216, user account services 236, document sources234, recipient device 450, form registry 600 and IVR server 460 arecoupled to each other wirelessly, i.e., they are members of a wirelessnetwork 430. In other embodiments, the scanning device 302, 500,computer 212, mobile phone or PDA 216, user account services 236,document sources 234, recipient device 450, form registry 600 and IVRserver 460 are coupled to each other as members of a wire-based or mixedwireless and wire-based network (e.g., as in the Internet 410).Regardless of the manner the devices are coupled to each other, forvarious embodiments, scanning device 302, 500, computer 212, mobilephone or PDA 216, user account services 236, document sources 234,recipient device 450, form registry 600 and IVR server 460 are eachequipped to operate in accordance with at least one communicationtransaction protocol. In various embodiments, scanning device 302, 500,computer 212, mobile phone or PDA 216 and telephone 465 may be wholly orpartially integrated. Thus, the terms scanning device and computer,mobile phone, PDA and telephone, as used herein, for the purpose of thisspecification, including the claims, shall be interpreted with themeaning of an appropriately equipped device, operating in accordancewith one or more of the scanning device 302, 500, computer 212, mobilephone or PDA 216 and telephone roles.

Additionally, in various embodiments, computer 212 and user accountservices 236 may be wholly or partially integrated. Thus, the termscomputer and user account services, as used herein, for the purpose ofthis specification, including the claims, shall be interpreted with themeaning of an appropriately equipped device, operating in accordancewith either a user computer or an account server role. It may be usefulfor a user to have field data on file so that some or all of the fieldsof a form may be submitted without a user having to input data when aform is encountered. This may be helpful with especially common dataelements such as name, address, phone number, e-mail address, socialsecurity number, driver's license number, date of birth or otherpossible identifier. Less common fields, such as parent's name, date ofhigh school graduation, astrological sign, registered political party,financial or medical information or other personal information, may alsobe stored within one or more devices within the system 400 andoptionally made available to complete forms.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary alternate embodiment of a scanningdevice 302, 500 suitable for use in various embodiments. Onenon-limiting example of such a device is a pen scanner, but many otherforms of a scanning or capture device may be employed by variousembodiments. In some alternate embodiments, the scanning device 302, 500may include many more components (or fewer) than those shown in FIG. 5.However, it is not necessary that all of these generally conventionalcomputing components be shown in order to disclose an enablingembodiment. Furthermore, while scanning device 302, 500 is referred toas a scanning device, in various embodiments it may be any form ofdevice suitable for graphically capturing portions of rendered forms. Asshown in FIG. 5, the scanning device 302, 500 includes a communicationsinterface 530, which, in some embodiments, may be a Network InterfaceController (“NIC”). The inter-device communications of thecommunications interface 530 may be designed to support a local areanetwork, wide area network, personal area network, telephone network,power line network, serial bus or wireless (e.g., Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11or 802.16 and the like) connection. Such a communications interface 530would also include the necessary circuitry, driver(s) and/or transceiverfor such a connection and would be constructed for use with theappropriate transmission protocols for such connections.

The scanning device 302, 500 also includes a processing unit 510, adisplay 540, a graphical input 525, an optional audio input 545, anoptional user input interface 535 and a memory 550, all interconnectedalong with the communications interface 530 via a bus 520. The memory550 generally comprises a random access memory (“RAM”), a read onlymemory (“ROM”) and a permanent mass storage device, such as a diskdrive, flash RAM or the like. The memory 550 stores an operating system555, form processing routine 560, field data 565 and device identifier570. In alternate embodiments, bus 520 may be a hierarchy of bridgedbuses. For ease of understanding, operating system 555, form processingroutine 560, field data 565 and device identifier(s) 570 are illustratedas separate software components, in alternate embodiments, they may becomprised of multiple software components, implemented in hardware, ormay be subparts of one or more integrated software components.

In one embodiment, the form processing routine 560 is adapted to processgraphically captured portions of a form 495. In various embodiments, aform 495 may be any rendered version of human readable text and orimages that is susceptible to graphical capture by a scanning device302, 500. Exemplary, non-limiting example of rendered forms 495 includematerials from, but not limited to, paper catalogs, magazines, books,printed text, television or computer displays, posters, signs and thelike. In various embodiments, form processing routine 560 may simply bean analog to digital converter where graphically captured informationfrom the graphical input 525 is stored as form data.

Various embodiments may employ scanning devices 500 having enhancedcapabilities to allow still further transactions. For example, in onesuch embodiment, scanning device 302, 500 comprises Global PositioningSystem (“GPS”) circuitry or other positioning circuitry (not shown),thereby enabling transactions based on the geographic location of thegraphical capture of a rendered form.

In alternate embodiments, form processing routine 560 may includeenhanced image analysis. For example, form processing routine 560 mayprocess graphically captured information from the graphical input 525 toextract image information. One possible form of form processing mayinclude determining the position, orientation and size of elements of apattern in an image (such as text or other human readable symbols).

Another form of form processing may include identifying differencesbetween an image and a stored pattern. Methods for identifying thesedifferences are generally referred to as pattern inspection methods andmay be used for a number of purposes. One early, widely used method forpattern location and inspection is known as blob analysis. In thismethod, the pixels of a digital image are classified as “object” or“background,” typically by comparing pixel gray-levels to a threshold.Pixels classified as object are grouped into blobs using the rule thattwo object pixels are part of the same blob if they are neighbors; thisis known as connectivity analysis. Each such blob is analyzed todetermine properties such as area, perimeter, center of mass, principalmoments of inertia, principal axes of inertia and the like. In onespecific implementation, the position, orientation and size of a blobare taken to be its center of mass, angle of first principal axis ofinertia, and area, respectively. These and the other blob properties canbe compared against a known ideal for proposes of inspection. Blobanalysis is relatively inexpensive to compute, allowing for fastoperation on inexpensive hardware.

Another form processing method that may be employed by form processingroutine 260 is template matching. Template matching uses one or moretraining images that contain examples of the patterns to be located. Thesubset of the training image containing the example is processed toproduce a pattern and then stored in a memory. Images are presented thatmay contain the object to be found. The stored pattern is compared withlike-sized subsets of the presented images at all or selected positionsand the position(s) that best match the stored pattern may then beconsidered the position(s) of the object. Degree of match at a givenposition of the pattern is simply the proportion of pattern pixels thatmatch their corresponding image pixel, thereby providing patterninspection information. In some embodiments, template matching may beemployed to locate electronic instances of forms as described below.

Template matching may be applied to a variety of form processinganalyses. It also is able to tolerate missing or extra pattern featureswithout severe loss of accuracy, and it is able to detect finedifferences between the pattern and the object.

A further alternate form of form processing is the use of gray-levelnormalized correlation for pattern location and inspection. Gray-levelnormalized correlation and template matching are similar, except thatthe full range of image gray-levels are considered with gray-levelnormalized correlation, and the degree of match becomes the correlationcoefficient between the stored pattern and the image subset at a givenposition.

Gray-level correlation may be used in applications where significantvariation in orientation and/or size is expected. Accordingly, thestored pattern is rotated and/or scaled by digital image re-samplingmethods before being matched against the image. By matching over a rangeof angles, sizes and x-y positions, one can locate an object in thecorresponding multidimensional space.

Still further versions of form processing routine 560 may includeconventional Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”) processing to extracttextual and/or symbolic information from a graphically captured portionof a rendered form 495.

While the form processing routine 560 is described as residing on thescanning device 302, 500, in alternate embodiments, form processingroutine 560 may optionally reside on other devices of the operatingenvironment 400, such as the computer 212, mobile phone or PDA 216 ordocument sources 234.

It will be appreciated that the software components of scanning device302, 500 may be loaded from a computer readable medium into memory 550of the scanning device 302, 500 using a mechanism (not shown) associatedwith the computer readable medium such as a floppy, tape, DVD (DigitalVersatile Disk) drive, CD (Compact Disk) drive, flash RAM orcommunications interface 530. In various embodiments, the loading may beperformed during the manufacturing of scanning device 302, 500, orsubsequently. In other embodiments, the software components may bedownloaded from one or more networked servers.

In various embodiments, the communications interface 530 may facilitatethe connection of remote devices to the scanning device 302, 500; forexample, devices for reading and/or writing in machine readable media,digital cameras, printers and the like. Various user-input interfaces535 may also be coupled to the scanning device 302, 500, such as, forexample, keyboards, keypads, touch-pads, mice and the like.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary form registry 600 suitable for use invarious embodiments. In some embodiments, the form registry 600 mayinclude many more components (or fewer) than those shown in FIG. 6.However, it is not necessary that all of these generally conventionalcomputing components be shown in order to disclose an enablingembodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, the form registry 600 includes acommunications interface 630, which, in some embodiments, may be a NIC.The inter-device communications of the communications interface 630 maybe designed to support a local area network, wide area network, personalarea network, telephone network, power line network, serial bus orwireless (e.g., Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 or 802.16 and the like)connection. Such a communications interface 630 would also include thenecessary circuitry, driver(s) and/or transceiver for such a connectionand would be constructed for use with the appropriate transmissionprotocols for such connections.

The form registry 600 also includes a processing unit 610, an optionaldisplay 640 and a memory 650, all interconnected along with thecommunications interface 630 via a bus 620. The memory 650 generallycomprises RAM, ROM and a permanent mass storage device, such as a diskdrive, flash RAM or the like. The memory 650 stores an operating system655, form matching routine 1200, form entry routine 1400 and formsdatabase 675.

In alternate embodiments, bus 620 may be a hierarchy of bridged buses.For ease of understanding, operating system 655, form matching routine1200, form entry routine 1400 and forms database 675 are illustrated asseparate software components; in alternate embodiments, they may becomprised of multiple software components, implemented in hardware, ormay be subparts of one or more integrated software components.

In one embodiment, the forms database 675 contains form informationcorresponding to form 495. The form registry 600 uses the forms database675 to correlate operations to a form 495 with an electronic instance ofthe form.

It will be appreciated that the software components may be loaded from acomputer readable medium into memory 650 of the form registry 600 usinga mechanism (not shown) associated with the computer readable mediumsuch as a floppy, tape, DVD drive, CD drive, flash RAM or communicationsinterface 630. In various embodiments, the loading may be performedduring the manufacturing of device 600, or subsequently. In otherembodiments, the software components may be downloaded from one or morenetworked servers.

In various embodiments, the communications interface 630 may facilitatethe connection of remote devices to the form registry 600; for example,devices for reading and/or writing in machine readable media, digitalcameras, printers and the like. Various input mechanisms may also becoupled to the form registry 600, such as, for example, keyboards,keypads, touch-pads, mice and the like (not shown).

In various embodiments, an electronic instance of a form may be locatedfor, and associated with form 495. In one such embodiment, the form 495is associated with a form identifier. A form identifier may be anexplicit identifier or may be a derived identifier from the contents ofthe form itself. In some embodiments, various types of explicit formidentifiers may be used to distinguish forms. The type of form maydetermine the choice of the type of identifier used. The generation andassignment of the identifiers may follow industry standard practices.Accordingly, in some embodiment it may be desirable that formidentifiers are unique for a form (or group of forms). One method forgenerating form identifiers is to take a title and append a randomnumber (e.g., “Tax-Form-1040-5435873934”). Another method is to generatea Globally Unique Identifier (“GUID”) using conventional algorithms. Thelocation of form identifier generation may be at any of a variety ofdevices in the operating environment 400, such as user account services236, scanning device 302, 500, computer 212, mobile phone or PDA 216,form registry 600 and the like. The appropriate form identifier may begenerated on demand or may be predetermined. Furthermore, formidentifiers may comprise supplemental information associated with aspecific form or even a specific instance of a form.

Derived identifiers may be determined from the contents of a form 495.One type of derived form identifier is a digest of one or more fragments(e.g., title, form text, form fields, names or the like) of the form495. In some such embodiments, electronic instances and forms 495contain substantially the same content. However, an electronic instancemay or may not be the actual source form employed to generate form 495.In other words, an electronic instance may be a copy instance or cousindescendant instance from a common ancestor of the source documentemployed to generate form 495. Further, various embodiments anticipatethat the form 495 may be a form of any type, and the term “form,” asused herein, includes but is not limited to, a printed version, adisplayed version, a Braille version and other versions of the like of aform. The term “digest” (of a form fragment) as used herein, in thespecification and later in the claims, refers to a derived resultoutputted from a process that includes acquiring information orknowledge of the form fragment, where the derived result comprisesinformation about the form fragment. In other words, a digest may alsobe considered as a representation or specification of the form fragment.

In various embodiments, each form fragment includes a number ofcharacters, and the corresponding digest is generated based at least inpart on the characters of the form fragment. The term “character” asused herein is intended to be broadly interpreted, encompassingalphabets, numerals, punctuation, symbols and glyphs of non-characterbased languages. As will be described in further detail below, invarious embodiments, each digest may be generated without awareness ofthe language and/or the character/glyph set employed to express thecontent of the form, including the form fragment itself. Further, anelectronic instance may be located employing a digest generated using arelatively short form fragment, as short as a handful of words.

In one embodiment, the scanning device 302, 500 is suitably equipped togenerate at least a representation of a form fragment of the form 495.For embodiments where form 495 is a printed instance, scanning device302, 500 may be an optical scanner unit capable of generating at leastan image of the form fragment.

In other embodiments, scanning device 302, 500 may be further endowedwith the ability to generate a digest of a form fragment, using thegenerated image of the form fragment.

In various embodiments, an electronic instance may be located andassociated with a form 495, based at least in part on the digest of afragment of the form 495.

In further embodiments, the content/characters of a form fragment, maybe determined from its digest, and may be used to cause an electronicinstance to be located.

In various embodiments, an electronic instance may be located, andassociated with form 495, by providing an image of a form fragment tosearch service, or by causing a search query having either a digest orthe determined contents/characters as the search criteria, to besubmitted to a search service (not shown). Resultantly, an electronicinstance may be located, and associated with a form 495.

The process of generating a digest for a form fragment, in accordancewith various embodiments may be practiced by scanner device 500 or otherdevices such as computer 212 or mobile phone or PDA 216. Further, forthese embodiments, the content, more specifically, the characters, of aform fragment may be analyzed without awareness of the language and/orthe character set employed to express the content of the form 495,including the form fragment.

Locating an electronic instance of a form involves abstractedlyidentifying the characters of form fragment. The phrase “abstractedlyidentifying the characters” as used herein, is intended to include inits meaning “the identification of the presence of the variouscharacters in the form fragment, without precisely recognizing thenature of the characters.” For example, when processing a form fragmenthaving the content “this is a string of characters”, the processidentifies the presence of 25 characters (not counting spaces), ofwhich, 12 are distinct, i.e., “t”, “h”, “i”, “s”, “a”, “r”, “n”, “g”,“o”, “f”, “c”, “e”, but, the process does not recognize the exact natureof the distinct characters, i.e., they are “s”, “t”, and so forth.

In various embodiments, the presence of the various characters isidentified by comparing an image of the form fragment with a replicateof the image (also referred to as the template). In various embodiments,the process may also include pre-processing of the received image ofform fragment, removing extraneous information, e.g., all or portions ofthe characters of the line above and/or the line below. Removal of suchextraneous information may be effectuated employing anyone of a numberof image/text processing techniques.

In various embodiments, identification of the presence of variouscharacters in form fragment is effectuated by incrementally comparingthe ending characters of form fragment with the beginning characters ofform fragment. The process may be visualized as sliding a template alongfrom the beginning to the end of the form fragment and comparing theoverlapping sections of form fragment and the template. Resultantly, thecharacter “s” is first compared to the letter “t”, then the letters “rs”are compared to the letters “th”, and so forth.

Eventually, when the letters “characters” are compared to the letters“this is a s”, the presence of the letter “s” is identified. Again, thefact that the character is the alphabetic “s” is not appreciated, nor isthe appreciation necessary. However, of course, in alternateembodiments, the alphabetic nature of characters appreciated.

For various embodiments, on identification of the presence of a newcharacter (again without appreciating the nature of the new character),a token is assigned to identify the new character. Thus, for the exampleform fragment “This is a string of characters”, the characters areidentified by corresponding token tokens or token identifiers.

For various embodiments, the presence of the characters “e”, “f”, “o”,“g” and “n” are substantially identified at the same time, when theentire form fragment is compared to template. For some embodiments,white space analysis is further performed at the end of the comparisonanalysis, to ensure the characters within a non-repeating pair ormultiple characters, such as “o” and “f” in the case of “of”, arerecognized as separate characters, although again they need not be fullyrecognized as the alphabet “o” or “f”. For some embodiments, tokens forthe last characters detected are simply assigned tokens withoutrecognizing the nature of each of the characters.

Thus, for the example form fragment, tokenization results in thegeneration of the token vector of “5261 61 4 1536CB A9 7243475831” as“this is a string of characters” is compared to it template as describedabove.

Next, for various embodiments, an analysis is performed using the tokenvector to generate a digest comprised of presence characters. A value isassigned to each presence character, based at least in part on itsoccurrence pattern. For the embodiments, the re-occurrence value isequal to the character distance between a token, and its firstsubsequent re-occurrence in the remainder of the token vector. Further,for the embodiments, a presence character is attributed with a value ofzero if it does not re-occur in the remainder of the token vector.Finally, the digest is outputted for the form fragment. Accordingly, forthe exemplary form fragment “this is a string of characters”, its digestis given by a vector “0, 20, 3, 3, 3, 8, 4, 7, 14, 7, 19, 15, 11, 0, 0,0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 2, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.”

In alternate embodiments, various modifications may be made to generatedigests. For examples, the occurrence values may be attributed withoutfirst tokenizing the characters. Another value other than “0” may beattributed to a character, if the character does not reoccur in theremainder of the form fragment. Hexadecimal values A, B etc. may beemployed. More complex, non-linear value attribution approach may beemployed instead. The attributed value may be based on other factorsbeside the re-occurrence of the character. Space may be included as acharacter. Further, as described earlier, other techniques to recognizethe nature of the characters may be employed. Yet further, the processmay be modified to analyze and assign attributes to the characters,abstractedly, by groups of characters having two or more characters.

In some embodiments, the scanning device 302, 500 initiates a formfilling transaction involving the form registry 600 by scanning aportion of a rendered form 495. FIG. 4 illustrates one exemplary seriesof communications between a scanning device 302, 500, computer 212 andform registry 600 in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 shows the flow of a form filling transaction, including theparameters, for some devices of operating environment 400. In thisembodiment, scanned information is sent from the scanning device 302,500 to begin a form filling transaction. The specific communicationsbetween the devices are described in more detail below.

In FIG. 7, the form filling begins with a graphical image capture of aform identifier a form 495. While some portion of the form 495 mayinclude human-readable information, in some embodiments, a formidentifier may be captured using machine-readable information such asbarcode (1D, 2D, and/or multi-colored) information. Such barcode orother machine-readable information may also be used to contain checksuminformation to verify graphically captured human-readable portions ofthe rendered form. The form identifier is sent 710 to the computer 212.Next, the computer 212 starts a form transaction 715. The computer 212sends the form identifier 720 to the form registry 600. The formregistry 600 locates 725 the form of associated with the form identifierand returns 730 the form to the computer 212. The computer 212 matches735 field data stored at the computer 212 to the form fields of thereturned form. The field data is populated 740 into the returned form.Next, the computer 212 renders 745 the form with the new field data inthe associated form fields of the form. Optionally a form filler may addadditional field data that is processed 750 by the computer 212, afterwhich the form is re-rendered 755.

In some embodiments, rendering the form may comprise displaying the formon a dynamic display, while in other embodiments, rendering the form maycomprise printing the form.

In various embodiments, the communications described above and shown inFIG. 4 are merely one exemplary set of communications between thescanning device 302, 500, computer 212 and form registry 600. Othercommunications, both more and fewer, may be employed in otherembodiments. For example, in one alternate embodiment, the form fillingprocess includes delivering a form to an account associated with thescanning device identifier 570 at the user account services 236 (and/ora separate e-mail address account). Such an embodiment would allow auser to review the electronic order before rendering the form with thefield data.

Similarly, while the form filling is shown as occurring in a series ofsteps, it may occur in other sequences, and the steps may occur afterprotracted periods. In one “asynchronous” example, a user maygraphically capture a form fragment as a form context and may alsocapture a form fragment including a desired item, but not transmit thegraphically captured form fragments until a later point in time. Suchasynchronous communications allow users of various embodiments topractice the embodiments, even when not connected to a network.

For example when a user is not connected to a network, and a scanningdevice 302, 500 does not have information about this user's context(e.g., location, time of day, recent forms viewed, recently vieweddocuments, occupation and any of a myriad of other contextual clues thatmay be used to provide context to a user's action), or when a user doesnot have access to a display—then resolving questions about which formwas actually scanned can be resolved at a later time. Accordingly, aform-submission process might be finished by directing a user to a website later, or by sending them an e-mail that requests furtheraction—possibly confirming by clicking on or otherwise following ahyperlink. Such an e-mail-based completion process might also include anexplanation or list of data items being requested.

Expanding briefly on user context, in some embodiments a user's contextis tracked rigorously to aid in resolving ambiguous form selections. Forexample, if a user (form filler) submits a positively identifier formfrom a particular magazine, then an ambiguously matched form that alsoappears in the same magazine may be given a higher priority as a likelycorrect choice. Similarly, if a user located in London scans a form thatambiguously matches both an American form and a British form, theBritish form will be given precedence. Likewise, if the user owns aboat, but not an airplane, and one of the ambiguously matched formsrelates to boats and another to airplanes, priority may be given to theform relating to boats when disambiguating between the two forms. Theseare merely illustrative and non-limiting examples of how user contextmay be used to resolve ambiguous matches between forms.

In some embodiments, form submission communications are performed overconnections using a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) connection incommunication with one or more Common Gateway Interface (“CGI”) or otherHTTP-accessible applications. In other embodiments, differenttransmission protocols and/or connections for form submissions may beemployed. Various types of form submission protocols are anticipatedbeing employed by various embodiments.

In general, a form submission contains the information necessary toidentify the form 495 and field data for filling one or more formfields. This may be accomplished by a variety of different form modelsin accordance with various embodiments.

In accordance with the above-described communications between scanningdevice 302, 500, computer 212 and form registry 600, FIG. 8 illustratesa process within the computer 212 for filling a form. The form fillingprocess 800 begins at block 805 where a form identifier (or arepresentation thereof) is obtained. In block 810, a form is obtainedfrom a form registry (e.g., form registry 600). In block 815, field datais matched to form fields in the obtained form. In block 820, the fielddata and form are rendered (e.g., displayed or printed) for review.Next, in decision block 825, a determination is made whether the form iscomplete with all the desired (or necessary) field data. If so, thenprocessing proceeds to decision block 835. If, however, in decisionblock 825 it was determined that the form is not complete, processingproceeds to block 830 where additional field data is obtained, afterwhich processing cycles back to block 820 where the form is re-renderedwith the additional field data.

Assuming the form is complete, and processing has proceeded to decisionblock 835, a determination is made whether the form should be printed.If so, processing proceeds to block 840 where the form is printed. Ifhowever in decision block 835 it was determined that the form should notbe printed (or after printing the form), processing proceeds to decisionblock 845 where a determination is made whether to submit (e.g., viae-mail, HTTP, facsimile or other electronic submission, or via othermethods, such a postal mail or courier delivery) the form to arecipient. Such a determination may be selected by a user, or may bepredetermined by defaults or a user's previous actions.

If in decision block 845 it is determined to submit the form to arecipient than processing proceeds to block 850 after which form fillingroutine 800 ends. If however in decision block 845 it was determined notto submit the form to a recipient processing proceeds to block 899 wherethe form filling routine 800 ends.

Optionally, a user may request that a particular form, or a field datarequest which a form represents, be presented or delivered in anotherfashion. For example, a user might request that a separate paper copy ofa form be mailed to their home or work address, that information shownon a form be requested via an email, or that a URL identifying aweb-based version of this form be sent to this user by email othermethods.

In various embodiments, when a user scans a form, e.g., by scanning aform identifier or other identifying text or marking, the user may bepresented with options. This presentation may occur later, for examplewhen this user connects to a user account (e.g., on user accountservices 236), or when they check their email or a website. Optionsavailable to a user might include:

-   -   Get additional information about this form offer or other entity        in this context.    -   Get additional information about a company/organization/entity        associated with this form.    -   Contact other users who have responded to this offer (e.g., via        chat room, discussion group, listserv).    -   View various demographics and/or statistics about others who        have commented on, or otherwise participated in, this offer,        form, or other entity in this context.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, a user may be presented with feedback(audible, visual, tactile or the like) while obtaining form identifiers.For example, in one exemplary embodiment, if a form 495 unambiguouslymatched from a form identifier, a first light emitting diode (“LED”) maylight up. Additional, when a user scans a form field within the form495, a second LED may light up once the scanning device 302, 500 (eitheralone or in combination with one or more other devices within the system100) determines the scanned location within the form 495. Likewise,other indicators may be employed to indicate that a form was notunambiguously identifier.

In assorted embodiments, various type of forms may be encountered by auser, and optionally processed in some way by different embodiments, anon-exclusive listing might include forms for:

-   -   Contests;    -   Subscriptions (e.g., to magazines);    -   Registration (e.g., to win prizes or vote);    -   Government forms;    -   Postal forms;    -   Shipping forms;    -   Customs forms;    -   Product ordering forms (e.g., catalog order sheet);    -   Financial documents;    -   Credit applications;    -   Other documents related to commerce; and    -   Other forms where an entity wants or requires information from        an individual or entity.

Note that a scanning device 302, 500 or account might be associated witha group of people (e.g., a club, a company, or other association).

The description of an item ordering transaction illustrated in FIGS. 7-8is one of a myriad of possible item ordering systems and methodsemployed by various embodiments. FIGS. 9-13 illustrate alternateembodiments for filling forms. FIGS. 9-10 additionally illustrate thatvarious devices within the operating environment may, in differentembodiments, reallocate processing of portions of item orderingtransactions.

Accordingly, FIG. 9 illustrates a similar item ordering transaction tothe one shown in FIG. 7, however between a scanning device 302, 500,form registry 600, user account services 236 and recipient device 450.In FIG. 9, in like manner, the form filling transaction begins with thescanning device 302, 500 graphically capturing 905 a form identifier.The form identifier is sent 910 to the form registry 600 (optionally viaa computer 212, not shown). The scanning device 302, 500 and optionalcomputer 212 may be closely coupled such that the computer 212 will knowwhich scanning device 302, 500 provided the form identifier. The formregistry 600 locates 915 an electronic instance of the form from whichthe form identifier was captured. In various embodiments, variousdifferent methods may be employed when locating 915 electronicinstances. However, in an exemplary embodiment, an electronic form islocated using a conventional lookup technique in a database using theform identifier as a key or as query data. Next, the form registry 600returns 920 an electronic instance of the form 495 to the scanningdevice 302, 500. The scanning device 302, 500 analyzes 925 theelectronic instance of the form, including determining form fields.Next, the scanning device 302, 500 matches field data 565 to thedetermined form fields and populates 935 the electronic instance of theform. The filled (populated) form is next sent 940 to the recipientdevice 450. Optionally, a record of the filled form and submission maybe logged 945 with the user account services 236 as well.

The communications described above and shown in FIG. 10 are merely oneexemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302, 500,form registry 600, user account services 236 and recipient device 450.Other communications, both more and fewer, may be employed in variousembodiments. Note, however, that unlike the communications shown in FIG.7, a recipient device 450 receives a filled electronic instance of theform 495.

In some embodiments, there may be a fee or other financial transactionassociated with various steps of completing a form. For example, a usermight receive a charge for this service. Such a charge might beautomatically billed to a credit card or deducted from a debit card orbank account or prepaid account associated with a particular user, witha scanning device 302, 500 or with a location. Alternately, such acharge might be levied on and paid by a recipient of this information ora party in association with them.

FIG. 10 also illustrates a similar item ordering transaction to the oneshown in FIG. 9, likewise between a scanning device 302, 500, formregistry 600, user account services 236 and recipient device 450. Theform filling transaction begins with the scanning device 302, 500graphically capturing 1005 a form identifier. The form identifier issent 1010 along with a device identifier 570 to the form registry 600(optionally via a computer 212, not shown). The form registry 600locates 1015 an electronic instance of the form from which the formidentifier was captured. Next, the form registry 600 sends 1020 a fielddata request (possibly, but not necessarily specifying form specificfield data) along with the device identifier 570 to the user accountservices 236 to obtain field data associated with the scanning device302, 500 (or a specific persona indicated by a device identifier 570).The user account services 236 processes 1025 the field data request andlocates 1030 field data associated with the device identifier 570. Thefield data is returned 1035 to the form registry for filling theelectronic instance of the located electronic instance of a form. Theform registry matches 1040 the field data to the form fields of theelectronic instance of the located form and populates 1045 the form withthe field data. The filled (populated) form is next sent 1050 to therecipient device 450. Optionally, a record of the filled form andsubmission may be logged 1055 with the user account services 236 aswell.

In one embodiment, a user may complete a part of a form or an entireform simply by scanning (or otherwise entering) an identifier associatedwith this form. In some cases a form identifier may also be readable bya human, for example as a serial number or URL, so that users who cannotor do not want to graphically capture a form may still complete it byentering an identifier manually. In these instances, it may be helpfulif a form or accompanying material includes information about how tosubmit data by other methods. Such methods may include going to aspecific URL with a web-browser. Another may be via a phone call to aspecific number and an interaction with an IVR server 460. These lasttwo examples indicate how it may be useful in some cases for individualsto have a way to identify themselves separately from a scanning device302, 500. Such a user identifier may associate an individual with acollection of data so that an individual may respond to or complete allor part of a particular field data request by submitting or relatingonly their identifier. In one example, a user could respond to a printedform by dialing a number associated with this form and then enteringtheir (possibly numeric) identifier via voice or DTMF or other phonecommands or actions. In one embodiment, a user might be able to usetheir email address, social security number, or other pre-existing dataitem as a key associated with data to be submitted with a form.

In another embodiment, a user may complete a rendered form usingauto-complete capabilities of a web browser. In this situation, a usermay browse to a website where they can enter a form identifier.Optionally, a form or associated materials may indicate a URL or otherweb address that a user may use to locate and connect to a correctform-completion service. For example, such a form might indicate, “Tocomplete this form online go to www.formfill.com/ID2372893.” Such asystem then might present this user's browser (or any tool capable ofcompleting a web-based—e.g., HTML—form) with an HTML or other web-basedversion of this form, which can then be completed manually (e.g., withkeyboard and mouse), and/or with auto-fill, if desired, and submittedelectronically by a user (e.g., by clicking on a submit button with acomputer mouse). Here, it may be helpful for forms that are enabled forthis auto-completion service to carry a specific mark indicating thisfact, and optionally an indication of the form's identity and/or aninternet location for a completion service for the form.

In accordance with the above description and the interactions shownbetween a scanning device 302, 500, form registry 600, user accountservices 236 and recipient device 450 in FIG. 9-10, FIG. 11 illustratesa process for filling a form obtained from a form registry 600. The formfilling routine 1100 begins at block 1105 where a form identifier isobtained. In block 1110, an electronic instance of a form is obtainedfrom a form registry (e.g., form registry 600). In block 1115, theelectronic instance of the form is analyzed to determine its constituentparts (e.g., text, form fields, signature blocks and the like). In block1120, field data is matched to form fields in the obtained electronicinstance of the form. In block 1125, the field data and form arerendered (e.g., displayed or printed) for review. Next, in decisionblock 1130, a determination is made whether the form is complete withall the desired (or necessary) field data. If so, then processingproceeds to block 1140. If, however, in decision block 1130 it wasdetermined that the form is not complete, processing proceeds to block1135 where additional field data is obtained, after which processingcycles back to block 1125 where the form is re-rendered with theadditional field data.

Assuming the form is complete, and processing has proceeded to block1140, the form is submitted to a form recipient (e.g., recipient device450). Optionally, processing proceeds to block 1145 where a record ofthe form submission is submitted to an account (e.g., on user accountservices 236). Processing of the form filling routine 1100 ends in block1199.

In alternate embodiments, a user with a scanning device 302, 500 mayoptionally enter selected fields or groups of fields by individuallyscanning field labels (or symbols) or title text associated with afields. This might allow a user to choose which items to submit andwhich to skip. Required items may carry visible and/or machine-readableindications of their required status (not shown). A suitable system mayhave an ability to recognize various frequently used field names, titlesand/or symbols. Optionally, an association between a title or other markand a meaning of a particular field or group of fields may be separatelyestablished by a party setting up a form.

In some cases, special marks may accompany fields, field names, or otherentities that forms system 400 may want or need to recognize. Thesemarks may be recognizable by a scanning device and or other devicewithin the system 400. Optionally the special marks may havecharacteristics recognizable by a user. In some embodiments, only thesespecial marks will need to be scanned to indicate an item or object tofile all or part of a form. In some cases it may be helpful if thesemarks appear next to or near a given field name.

The descriptions of form filling transactions illustrated in FIGS. 7-11illustrate transactions generally showing explicit form identifiers aspart of the form filling process. Such embodiments may also becompatible with implicit form identifiers as illustrated in the processshown in FIG. 12 and described below. FIG. 12 illustrates that a formidentifier may be derived from form context information (i.e. thecontext data is the form identifier).

Accordingly, FIG. 12 illustrates a form matching routine 1200. The formmatching routine 1200 begins at block 1205 where form context data(e.g., text, images, symbols, bar codes, form fields, signature blocksand the like) is obtained. Next, in decision block 1210 a determinationis made whether the context data contains an explicit form identifier.If so, then processing proceeds to decision block 1215. If however, thecontext data does not contain an explicit form identifier, then animplicit form identifier may be derived. Accordingly, processingproceeds to block 1225 where the form context data is analyzed andcompared against known forms. In decision block 1230, a determination ismade whether the analysis in block 1225 located an unambiguouslymatching form. If so, then processing proceeds to block 1235 where theunambiguously matching form is obtained and the form matching routineends in block 1299.

In some embodiments, the form recipient (e.g., user of recipient device450) does not register, provide or accept electronic instances of forms.Instead, a third-party (not shown) acts as a form remailer. Accordingly,the form remailer takes the place of the recipient device 450 as arecipient, but forwards the form on to the form recipient in the formatdesired by the form recipient. For example, this would allow a newspaperto accept electronic form submissions to classified ad forms, but wouldthen provide e-mail responses to the classified advertisers. This waythe readers of the classifieds can still submit electronic forms, andthe forms recipients can still receive e-mailed versions of thesubmitted field data (and forms) without having to provide an e-mailaccount or to provide a server with which to host form fillingactivities. In further embodiments, remailers may send postal formsubmissions or other formats of submissions.

If, in decision block 1215, no form matching the explicit formidentifier was available or if no unambiguous match was determined indecision block 1230, processing proceeds to block 1240 where additionalform context information is obtained. For example, a user may be queriedfor additional information from the form in real-time, or may have aquery for additional information sent to an associated user account(e.g., on user account services 236). Processing then proceeds to block1225 for re-analysis.

If, however, in decision block 1215 a form matching the explicit formidentifier was located, processing proceeds to block 1220, where thematching form is obtained. Processing then ends in block 1299.

In addition to locating and obtaining forms, various embodiments locatespecific field data for populating forms. Optionally, a password, PIN orother private code may be associated with a user's identifier. Forexample, a user might place a telephone call to a phone numberassociated with a data request or form, enter their social securitynumber to identify themselves, and then be prompted for and enter theirPIN or password to confirm their identity.

Additionally, stored field data might be located on a scanning device302, 500, or other device associated with an individual user (such ascomputer 212 or user account services 236). Data may be storedencrypted, and/or with other security measures to prevent theft and/oraccidental release of data.

In one embodiment, different types of data may be handled differently. Auser's data may, for example, be grouped into classes or categories.These groups might optionally have names or titles, such as, forexample, “level-1, level-2, level-3,” or possibly “very private,semi-private, public.” Optionally, certain types of data may be flaggedfor special processing. For example, when a form requests or requires asocial security number, a specific authorization might be required by auser. A specific handling of each element of field data in aform-submission process might be specified by a user, by systemdefaults, or by another method.

Accordingly, FIG. 13 illustrates a field data request processing routine1300 for handling request for field data. Field data request processingroutine 1300 begins at block 1305 where a request for field data isobtained. In block 1310, the field data request is analyzed to determinewhich pieces of field data are desired and/or required. Next, indecision block 1315, a determination is made whether any of the fielddata desired and/or required in the field data request is restricted,either inherently due to its sensitive nature (e.g., financial ormedical field data) or as specified in a record or records of the fielddata (e.g., field data 565). If none of the field data is restricted,processing proceeds to decision block 1350. If, however, there is anyrestricted field data, then processing proceeds to block 1320 wherefield data release authorization is obtained.

Field data release authorization may comprise any form of authenticationand or authorization process suitable for a form filler to grantpermission for the release of restricted field data. In one exemplaryembodiment, the authorization involves a personal identification number(“PIN”) code entry. In an alternate embodiment, a specific symbol orcode is graphically captured by a scanning device 302, 500. Theseexamples are merely illustrative, and in other embodiment, still furtherauthorization techniques may be used.

Once field data release authorization has been obtained, field datarequest processing routine 1300 proceeds to looping block 1325, whichbegins a loop for each restricted data field in the request. Next, inblock 1330 a restricted data field is compared with the field datarelease authorization. If in decision block 1335 it is determined thatthe compared data field is authorized for release, then in block 1340field data for that data field is stored for release. Processing thenproceeds to looping block 1345 where processing cycles back to loopingblock 1325 until all restricted data fields have been processed. If indecision block 1335 it is determined that the compared data field is notauthorized for release, processing proceeds directly to looping block1345.

Next, in decision block 1350 a determination is made whether there isany unrestricted field data. If so, then processing proceeds to block1355 where the unrestricted data is stored for delivery. If not, orafter the unrestricted field data has been stored, processing proceedsto return block 1399 where any stored data (restricted and/orunrestricted) is returned to the requester of the field data.

In some situations, when data is to be supplied or submitted by user, itmay be useful if a recipient of this data can be analyzed, evaluated,confirmed or otherwise assessed. For example, a potential recipientmight be checked to confirm that their published privacy policy is inaccord with a certification level, or perhaps with an individual user'sspecific instructions for data submission. For example, a DNA user mightspecify that personal data should only to be released to organizationshaving a privacy rating or trust rating above a certain threshold. Sucha rating might be established by an independent party. And/or such arating might be established by voting or other indications fromindividuals who have experience with an organization or entity beingrated (for example, users who have previously participated in this orprevious offers from this entity or organization).

A user might establish data-handling procedures via a set of rules oroptions. One such rule might be “only submit level-2 and higher data toorganizations having a privacy rating of at least 3.” Another rule mightbe “always contact me via phone call to confirm a request for my socialsecurity number.” Another rule might be “always send me an email recordshowing all data submitted to a form recipient.” Another rule might be“enter each data submission into my chronological log of data releases.”Rules for directing email in common personal computer email clients arean example of how rules may be employed to customize a system ordetermine system behavior for an individual user.

Note that in some embodiments scanning a form identifier conveys that auser specifically wants information sent—e.g., this user is givingconsent. In such a case one or more devices within a forms system 400may make a record of this scan, for example by preserving a capturedimage, time, date, or other meta-data, from this event as proof ofconsent. In some cases, a form identifier may include supplementalinformation that in some measure verifies that a user scanned a form. Inone embodiment, the supplemental information might be a unique codeassociated with each individual form 495. This code might be associatedwith a specific form mailed or otherwise delivered to a specificindividual. This code might optionally only be readable by a machineprogrammed with specific data or a specific algorithm.

In some embodiments it may be desirable for the form registry 600 toprocess (or preprocess) forms when registering them for later retrieval.Such a registration might include data such as where and how to sendcertain data, specific fields on a form, which fields are required oroptional, how these form-submitting services are to be paid for,security and/or privacy and/or credit and/or other qualifications orratings of recipients of form data, a copy of this entity's privacypolicy, specific instructions for handling various processes and/orcircumstances in this form-filling and form-submitting process(optionally as computer code or instructions) and optionally other dataas well. Other data associated with or registered with a form mayinclude information about a form identifier, a symbol or otherrepresentation of some graphical element or elements by which this formmay be recognized, which individual users or groups of users orsituations or contexts this form is intended for, an electronic copy ofthis form (for example, in printable PDF format) or where to locate sucha copy, valid dates, times, or other qualifying circumstances in whichthis form may be submitted. Other data may be associated or submittedwith a form as well, optionally including all data that is useful ornecessary to various parties participating in a forms-completionprocess.

For example, a form may carry additional coded, machine-readable orhuman-readable data. This data might include a specific user for whomthis form was intended. Such additional data may be incorporated in aform identifier such that this additional data is included when a userscans the form identifier. Optionally, a form or group of forms may havea unique form identifier. Data may be separately associated with thisidentifier. Such data might be stored in a form registry 600 or storedelsewhere within the forms system 400. If a form is registered with aform registry 600, such data might be entered and/or associated with aform when the form is registered.

Accordingly, FIG. 14 illustrates one exemplary simplified formregistration routine 1400. Form registering routine 1400 begins at block1405 where an unregistered form is obtained. In block 1410, the form isprocessed into a parseable format. For example, if a graphicallycaptured image of a form is obtained in block 1405, processing the formmay comprise an OCR process wherein the characters of the textualportions of the form may be recognized. Alternate processes, such as thenon-OCR character processing methods described above may also be used inalternate embodiments. Once the form is in a parseable format,processing proceeds to block 1415 where the form is parsed into datafields. The data fields are analyzed in block 1420 for relationships. Insome embodiments, the relationship may be in the form of dependencies.For example, a form field may be a check box with two options and if oneof the options is checked, then another form field is required to befilled. Such relations and other relations between form fields areanalyzed in block 1420. Similarly, in block 1425 the form fields areanalyzed for specific data types (check, “X”, name, address, city,state, zip, country, telephone number, date and the like).

Once the form has been analyzed, a form identifier is assigned to (orderived from) the form in block 1430. The form is registered in the formregistry (e.g., form registry 600) with its identifier.

In some embodiments, if a user encounters a form not known to a formregistry 600, they might mail, fax, email or otherwise deliver this formso that it may be filled out. The form registry may optionally containexpert knowledge and instructions for automatically analyzing andrecognizing various elements commonly used on forms. Thus, a new formmay be analyzed and made available to be automatically filled out ifsubsequent users request it.

In some embodiments, the first user to submit a copy of a formpreviously unknown to a form registry 600 may be rewarded in some way,for example by receiving a small payment when subsequent users interactwith this form, or by not having to pay a fee to have the form filled.In some systems, these incentive payments might instead appear ascredits to form authors or publishers who submit and/or register theirform directly with a form registry 600 before a user submits it—forexample, these credits might be used to reduce a per-user charge thatregistered form publishers may be assessed for use of this system.

In one embodiment, a registry or database of form images may be created.When a user of this forms system encounters a printed or otherwiserendered form, they may request that this forms system complete thisform for them. This user's data necessary to complete this form might betransmitted to this forms system at the time of this request, or, inanother of many embodiments, this user's data might already be on filewithin this forms system, in which case this user may only need toidentify themselves to this forms system, for example by submitting auser ID, and password or PIN.

FIGS. 15-20 illustrate a variety of exemplary unfilled and filled formssuitable for use with various embodiments.

FIG. 15 illustrates a conventional form 1500 with a form identifier inboth numeric 1520A and 2D barcode 1520B formats. Form 1500 includes anumber of form fields 1530 and a signature block 1540. In someembodiments, the signature block 1540 may be enhanced withmachine-readable information. In some such embodiments, thenmachine-readable information may be used to verify the authenticity of aform and/or a signature. For example, a signature line or lines of alegal document might be marked by a watermark or pattern or otherdesign. This design might include or incorporate a serial number orother identifier unique to this specific form. After a person has signeda document, a scanning device 302, 500 may be used to capture thissignature and underlying or nearby identifying marks. This data may betransmitted to a separate location. A time, date or other informationrelated to a transaction may be recorded.

FIG. 16 illustrates a conventional form 1600 such as form 1500, but withthe field data inserted already into the form fields 1630. Form 1600includes a form identifier in both numeric 1620A and 2D barcode 1620Bformats. Form 1600 also includes a filled signature block 1640.

FIGS. 17A and B illustrate simplified types of postcard forms 1700A,1700B where the actual form fields are not displayed; rather amachine-readable form identifier 1710A, 1710B is used to locate anelectronic instance of the form 1700A, 1700B that is filled with thedesired and/or required field data. Form 1700B also includes anotification 1720 of what field data will be submitted upon thesubmission of the form.

Similarly, such simplified forms may allow users who encounter missingcomplete forms to still submit this same data. For example, a tear-outform in a magazine might have an accompanying description and/oridentifier, either of which might be recognized by a scanning device,even after this accompanying form was removed. Such a description orform identifier might, for instance, be printed on a tab remaining in amagazine insert after a form had been removed. Alternatively, adescription or other identifier might be printed nearby, for example ona nearby page.

FIG. 18 illustrates a catalog page as an exemplary form 495 for use withvarious embodiments. In one exemplary embodiment, a customer number on acatalog label (not shown) may be used a form identifier in form fillingtransactions associated with the catalog. The address label may alsocontain further information, such as a name and address of a recipientof the catalog. FIG. 18 illustrates an interior page 1800 of the catalogwith a number of items 1810A-H and a purchase symbol 1820. In alternateembodiments, further symbols may be used, for example a symbol torequest special offers or sale items (not shown).

In one illustrative example of the operation of an embodiment, a userscans catalog form identifier (possibly the customer number or catalognumber) using a scanner device. The form identifier data is processed ata form registry 600 to locate an electronic instance of the catalog.Next, the user scans an item number, such an item number “789321”corresponding to item 1810G (a refurbished iBook computer). The itemnumber scan identifies the item to be ordered within the electronicinstance of the catalog. A recipient device 450 (probably correspondingto the catalog supplier) is notified of an order for item 1810G (arefurbished iBook computer with item number “789321”). By using the twostage (form identifier and item) scanning, the number of ambiguous scansis greatly reduced. As the catalog provider is in control of the size ofcatalog form identifier and item numbers, it is possible for the catalogprovider to ensure unambiguous designations.

It will be appreciated that, in alternate embodiments, specific catalognumbers and item numbers need not be employed, but are simply used forillustrative purposes. Any human-readable or machine-readableinformation may be used to disambiguate between forms and form fieldsand to correlate them with electronic instances of the same.

While FIG. 18 illustrates a conventional catalog with printed pages, inan alternate embodiment the catalog may actually be simplified to aminimal size, such as a postcard (or within a magazine, book, TV guide,letter and the like), thereby allowing a user to scan the address labeland receive an electronically rendered (e.g., via e-mail, the web oreven via a custom printed and mailed version) of the catalog. In such anembodiment, the user may see a web page similar to the one shown in FIG.19 and described below. By having a dynamically generated catalogpresented to the user of the scanning device 302, 500, it is possiblefor form recipients to personalize the catalog to a particular user of ascanning device 302, 500 by selecting the items, prices and fulfillmentrequirements in a dynamic manner. As the scanning devices 300, 500provide this additional functionality, form recipients may also elect toprovide a discount to users of scanning devices.

In addition, in a further exemplary embodiment, a dynamic display allowsfurther functionality for dynamically displayed forms. In thedynamically displayed catalog example, actions associated with orderingitems from a catalog form, such as form 1800, could be reflected in adynamically updated portion of the dynamic display. In one such example,as a user selects items for purchase, a tally (not shown) is displayedlisting the item, the quantity ordered, tax on the item, shipping costsand a total cost. Form field data, such as the user's address,tax-exempt status and the like are used to calculate shipping, tax ratesand related information for the tally.

In one exemplary embodiment, a special symbol 1820 is presented to auser in a rendered document, representing that an order activity(generally a purchase) may be activated by scanning the symbol 1820. Byscanning one or more items individually presented, the user can indicatetheir decision to make the purchase. Orders can be confirmed via anyavailable display, via telephone, or by sending the user an emailrequiring further action.

In some embodiments, scanning an item multiple times (or scanning onceand then indicating a quantity through another input method) may be usedto indicate a purchase of multiple items. Additionally, scanning in anopposite direction (e.g., right to left) can undo or remove an ordereditem or otherwise erase a form field. In general, such gestures (andothers) with a scanning device 302, 500 may be used to enhance theinteraction with a form, without requiring complex controls or userinterfaces. The gestures may be detected using motion sensing components(not shown) of a scanning device 302, 500, such as accelerometers andthe like.

To avoid additional actions the user may be able to complete thepurchase in the moment. One relatively safe way to insure that the useractually intended to make the purchase is to have a separate action thatthe user is required to perform to complete the purchase. This actionmight be to push a special button on the scanning device 302, 500 or toscan a special object or phrase printed in the form 1800 (for example, astatement like “I agree to purchase”). The user may also identifythemselves (possibly via a username and/or password) and/or confirm apurchase by scanning a special code or mark that can be printed on acard and carried by the user. If the coded information on the card isnot easily copied, only a user in physical possession of the card couldscan this data. Other forms of authentication and/or verification may beemployed in various embodiments, including, but not limited to biometricauthentication, PIN entry in a keypad, challenge/response, cryptographictokens and the like.

In many cases, it may be helpful to know the location of the user. Thiswould be useful, for example, when the user has access to a displaydevice and wants their form displayed there. A label or otherscanning-device-readable indicator (not shown) that identifies thespecific display and or device may be available to the user. Scanningthis label informs a document sources 234 (or account server) of theuser's location. In some cases, the identifying label can be generatedand displayed on a computer 212. Generally, only the user physically atthe display device would then be able to scan this information, therebyproviding an additional layer of security.

FIGS. 19 and 20 illustrate exemplary iconic forms 1900, 2000 wherein theform fields 1940, 2040 are represented symbolically. FIG. 19 illustratesa statically rendered form, such as a printed card and FIG. 20illustrates a dynamically rendered form 2000, such as a web page.

Form fields 1940 may be any type of predetermined symbol used torepresent a form field. In exemplary form 1900, the symbols 1910A-H maycorrespond to mailing address, e-mail address, phone number, driver'slicense, name, work address, attorney bar number and annual incomerespectively. However, in alternate embodiments the symbols may havedifferent meanings. Additionally, other symbols may also be used. Forexample, in various embodiments, payment method symbols may be used,such as a “bill me later” symbol or credit payment symbols, includingrecognizable symbols, such as the VISA®, American Express® andMasterCard® logos as symbolic representations of form fields requestingpayment field data corresponding to a payment account associated withone or more of the payment method logos.

In addition to inclusive symbols, an iconic form may have exclusivesymbols, such as symbols 1920A-B. Such symbols may indicate that nopersonal lodging information should be included when submitting theform, or that no personal financial information be included.

Form 1900 also includes form identifiers in 2D barcode 1930A, 1D barcode1930B and numeric 1930C forms.

In a further alternate embodiment, the scanning device 302, 500 may beused in conjunction with an associated display, such as a display of acomputer 212. Accordingly, FIG. 20 illustrates such an embodiment wherethe display of a device (e.g., computer 212) is used to assist indisplaying a form.

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary displayed electronic instance of adynamically rendered form 2000. The displayed electronic instance of arendered form is a web page 2000 corresponding to the staticallyrendered form 1900. The web page 2000 is displayed within a browserwindow 2005 (e.g., in a browser of a computer 212). Form fields 2040 maybe any type of predetermined symbol used to represent a form field. Inexemplary form 2000, the symbols 2010A-H may correspond to mailingaddress, e-mail address, phone number, driver's license, name, workaddress, attorney bar number and annual income respectively. However, inalternate embodiments the symbols may have difference meanings.

Likewise, in the electronic instance of a dynamically rendered form2000, the form 2000 may have exclusive symbols, such as symbols 2020A-B.Such symbols may indicate that information should be included whensubmitting the form.

The symbolic form fields 2040 in dynamically rendered form 2000 mayalter depending on a form fillers selection or de-selection of aparticular form field.

Form 2000 also includes form identifiers in 2D barcode 1930A, 1D barcode1930B and numeric 1930C forms. It will be appreciated that FIG. 20 ispresented for illustrative purposes and is in no way meant to belimiting to the scope of the present invention.

CONCLUSION

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art andothers, that a wide variety of alternate and/or equivalentimplementations may be substituted for the specific embodiment shown anddescribed without departing from the scope of the present invention.This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations ofthe embodiment discussed herein. It will be appreciated by those skilledin the art that the above-described system may be straightforwardlyadapted or extended in various ways. While the foregoing descriptionmakes reference to particular embodiments, the scope of the invention isdefined solely by the claims that following and the elements recitedtherein.

1. A computer-implemented method of populating data related to a printedform, the method comprising: obtaining, by a server from a portablecapture device operated by a user, via a network, a form identifier viainformation optically captured from a printed form comprising aplurality of printed blank fields for accepting manually entered data;determining, by said server, an electronic form structure comprising aplurality of electronic data fields, corresponding at least in part tosaid plurality of printed fields, in accordance with said captured formidentifier; automatically obtaining, by said server, a plurality of dataassociated with said user from a coupled electronic data source, saidplurality of data associated with said user corresponding to at leastsome of said plurality of electronic data fields; automaticallygenerating, by said server, an electronic representation of saidplurality of data associated with said user in accordance with saidelectronic form structure; and communicating, by said server, saidelectronic representation of said plurality of data associated with saiduser to a receiver.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisingrendering to a display associated with said portable capture device arepresentation of the printed form in accordance with said plurality ofuser data.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining said formidentifier comprises deriving a form identifier from human-readableelements of said printed form.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising obtaining an authorization from said user to communicate saidelectronic representation of said plurality of data associated with saiduser to said receiver.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisingobtaining, via said portable capture device, a machine-readablesignature field identifier.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein obtainingsaid plurality of data associated with said user comprises obtaining auser identity from said portable capture device.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein said portable capture device comprises a mobile phone.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein determining said electronic form structurecomprises obtaining said electronic form structure from at least one ofan electronic database, a local file system, a remote file system, anetwork-based storage system, and a network-based server.
 9. The methodof claim 4, wherein obtaining said authorization comprises obtainingagreement from said user to pay for a product or service offered forpurchase via the printed form.
 10. The method of claim 4, whereinobtaining said authorization comprises obtaining, via said portablecapture device, an indication of at least one of said plurality ofelectronic data fields.
 11. A computer readable medium containingcomputer executable instructions that when executed by a processor,perform a method comprising: obtaining, by a server from a portablecapture device operated by a user, via a network, a form identifier viainformation optically captured from a printed form comprising aplurality of printed blank fields for accepting manually entered data;determining, by said server, an electronic form structure comprising aplurality of electronic data fields corresponding at least in part tosaid plurality of printed fields in accordance with said captured formidentifier; automatically obtaining, by said server, a plurality of dataassociated with said user from a coupled electronic data source, saidplurality of data associated with said user corresponding to at leastsome of said plurality of electronic data fields; automaticallygenerating, by said server, an electronic representation of saidplurality of data associated with said user in accordance with saidelectronic form structure; and communicating, by said server, saidelectronic representation of said plurality of data associated with saiduser to a receiver.
 12. A computing apparatus having a processor and amemory containing computer executable instructions that when executed bythe processor, perform a method comprising: obtaining, from a portablecapture device operated by a user, a form identifier via informationoptically captured from a printed form comprising a plurality of printedblank fields for accepting manually entered data; determining anelectronic form structure comprising a plurality of electronic datafields corresponding at least in part to said plurality of printedfields in accordance with said captured form identifier; automaticallyobtaining a plurality of data associated with said user from a coupledelectronic data source, said plurality of data associated with said usercorresponding to at least some of said plurality of electronic datafields; automatically generating an electronic representation of saidplurality of data associated with said in accordance with saidelectronic form structure; and communicating said electronicrepresentation of said plurality of data associated with said user to areceiver.